Just another day a the office

I've been working in the outpatient clinic now for about 4 days. Don't ask me why; it is a bit of a sore subject as I like the work and the interesting patients on the inpatient ward. Nonetheless, there are a few benefits to the clinic- relatively regular hours for one. I also have my own office which is like my second home and another place to keep my belongings (secured). I like the people in the clinic, too. Nothing against surgeons (well only one, but I won't go into that now), but they are usually a bit arrogant and not always personable.

Anyway, today was an interesting smattering of patients. Diagnosis of a ventral hernia, bloody diarrhea, another fake shoulder pain, a wretched case of vertigo (poor guy) and my favorite of the day- thumb pain from accidental morphine injection. ??!! I know. So the story goes that this patient was working in the pharmacy and disposing of outdated medications, one of which was a morphine autoinjector (for the field). This person had never seen one and was curious about how it worked, so holding in her right hand with her thumb on what she thought was the plunger end, she took off what she thought was the needle cap on the other end and POW- a mL of high dose morphine right into the thumb. This was just before Christmas and she thought she was doing okay after her thumb had returned to normal size and the horrible itching all the way up her arm ceased (itching is a side effect of morphine). However, she was still have some significant pain in her thumb and hand. And she comes to me for help. Can't say I've come across this one before. Xrays of thumb were fine. Sent her home on T3's. Think I might have to discuss this one with a few other docs - get a few opinions.