Goodbyes

ED Shoes, click on the image for a Flickr interactive view.

There comes a time when all that's left to be said is, "Goodbye old friend." This week I used that phrase twice. Once to the Harborview emergency department and later in the same day to my clinic shoes. Over the past 2 years I've used a dedicated pair of shoes during ED shifts and overnight call. The day I stepped out of the Harborview ED was the same day I said goodbye to these old friends. The left toe bears the badge of ortho (plaster). The right foot has a spatter from irrigating my last wound in Seattle. Both bear marks from my away rotation at San Francisco General, as the heels and laces retained a tinge of the scrubs' cranberry pink dye. The real reason for discarding this pair was the torn apart left heel and loss of sole traction. Otherwise, with a splash of bleach they'd be ready for another shift!

An expanded version of this article was published at Medscape's student blog, The Differential.