Think for a second about the most treasured drug or device in your medical bag.  Or about the procedure you find most appealing, the disease or injury you most enjoy treating.  Personally, I really enjoy doing lumbar punctures, opening abscesses, placing IO lines and applying splints.  And because I’m an emergency physician, I am duty bound to say that I love to intubate … and I do.

I also enjoy doing nerve blocks, whether dental, regional or digital.  In fact, I did my own digital block on my very painful great toe, wherein there was an ingrown nail.  I endured it for about one month, believe it or not, but ultimately I was too cheap to go to my doctor or any other doctor. So I sat down in my bathroom with my wife and kids in attendance. Just before I started, I said, “I don’t think I can do this to myself!”  To which my insulin-dependent son, Seth, replied “Are you kidding me?”  The shame worked and the needle and bupivicaine left my toe tingling for at least 12 hours.

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Edwin Leap is an emergency physician who blogs at edwinleap.com and is the author of The Practice Test. This article originally appeared in Emergency Medicine News.