Talk About Irony

So far I have attempted two LPs and both of them were stunning failures. The first was in the newborn nursery, on a 2 day old baby. First the upper level resident tried twice and couldn't get anything. Then I tried twice and didn't get anything. Then he tried again and on the second needle stick (that's six different needles total, each one with at least a couple of sticks) was finally able to get like, 1 cc of super bloody fluid. The second attempt was on a 3.5 month old. This time I tried first. The nurses who were holding him down didn't really do a good job and he was like, thrashing all over the place, although that isn't really an excuse. I tried a bunch of times, but to no avail. Then my upper level tried, and she couldn't get it either. Then she asked one of the other upper levels to give it a try. By the time he got there, a different nurse had come by and she did a stellar job of folding the kid in half and making sure he didn't move and the resident got 4 tubes worth of CSF. Meanwhile, the poor kid is like, crying and screaming to the point of exhaustion.

I am starting to have a newfound respect for the first year ER intern who fucked up my spinal tap when I was 15. I have even more respect for the Head of Pediatric Neurosurgery who ended up getting my tap on the first try.