ER Doc Tips by Paul Weinberg, MD
48 Life Pro Tips to Be Emergency free!
This list is not a substitute for your physician’s advice and should not replace seeing a physician:
The tales from my time in the ER I told to my kids were cautionary tales to teach them how to be safe, to be aware. Many of the tips were basic, like wear shoes to avoid foot injury or wear gloves when handling broken glass.
Some were funny and weird, others too disturbing for their young minds. Some even I could not fully absorb, like never shake a baby, which I learned from treating a baby who had been shaken.
This is a list of things I learned that I take personally from my ED life and explained to the kids, who may or may not have taken them seriously.
1. Empty your bladder prior to driving
3. Do not speed or use the drug speed
5. Marijuana is OK for occasional use
7. Caution when taking out the trash
9. Avoid carbs (carbohydrates). Diet matters!
10. Keep immunizations up-to-date
11. Avoid getting caught up in the medical system – Try and accept minor complaints
12. Never touch your face without washing your hands first
14. Great concern of pools and children
15. Wear closed-in footwear when bicycle riding
16. Use it or lose it (i.e. keep exercising)
17. Nothing good happens after 2 a.m. – Sometimes even as early as 11 p.m.
19. Sunscreen is your friend – Use it
20. Sunglasses double as eye protectors
21. Male stubbornness can be deadly
22. Do not dive – And never head first
23. Pay attention to outcomes when you are having “too much fun” (particularly under age 30)
24. Do not punch a wall or a window
25. Firearms can be perilous – But you already knew that
26. Membership in a local gang is not good for longevity
27. Continue to take your high blood pressure medicine
28. “I was feeling so well I stopped taking my insulin”
29. Avoid ingesting gasoline when siphoning gasoline
30. Really, never shake a baby
31. Tattoos sag with disease and age and weight loss
33. Wound care
34. Protect hands and feet from injury – Beware of glass
35. Oleander, to be enjoyed at a distance
36. Caution around wood chippers, blenders, axes
37. Responsibility to show up and work
38. Keep thinking – No panicking
39. Mute commercials
40. “Epistaxis Management” aka Nosebleed
41. A special hospital smell brought home by parents
42. Be careful with plastic bags and tabs around children
43. Teased about hand hygiene by non-medical buddies
44. Learn Greek and Latin roots
45. Use of field sobriety tests for safety!
46. Zit management – Don’t needle ‘em or squeeze them too hard
47. Understand the difference between risk and dread
48. Rarely use the internet to diagnosis your medical condition