Majorly Bummed

I had a complication in one of my patients today, so I'm majorly bummed. :-( I told my resident that in six years of working there, I had yet to present a case at Morbidity and Mortality Conference, until now, that is. ACKKK! One of my colleagues, who is board-certified in Internal Medicine with a subspecialty in Pulmonary Medicine/Critical Care AND board-certified in Anesthesiology told me (when I asked him) that he didn't see anything wrong with how I managed the case. I know that sometimes the unexpected happens in medicine, but I wanted to make sure that I did everything I could to prevent this from happening in the first place. In this way, hopefully I'll learn how to keep this from happening in the future.

This is why I didn't go into the Primary Care field, because I can get pretty wrapped up in the patient. With my chosen field I can be more detached. It sounds a little cold, I know, but I have found that this is much better for my stress level and my personal life in the end. Still, I'm going to be checking on this patient first thing tomorrow. I hope that this complication has resolved by then.