Sunday, October 9, 2011

A month of firsts.

So quick update: I'm about to finish my first rotation (Family Medicine), and well... a lot of things happened.  First off, everyone in family medicine is exceptionally nice - I'm sure this isn't true everywhere, but I'm definitely glad I started off in a welcoming atmosphere. I've definitely been spoiled. So here are some highlights:
  • My week of in-patient started off with my first on-call (30ish hour) shift. Of course all the patients came in the middle of the night - because well, that is just my luck. I got about 2 shifts of 1.5 hours of sleep. 
    • I have been yelled at... by a patient. Note to self: chronic alcoholics who come into the ED at 2:00am are usually not the nicest patients.
    • By my 24th hour - the patient tried to yell at me again - to which I just stared at him until he was finished, said "well I'm sorry you feel that way", and continued to examine him. For some weird reason - he was never mean to me again; he actually offered me his breakfast the following day. He did, however, urinate on himself and me... but I digress. 
    • Another note to self: Get a good medical student to follow me when I'm a physician. Because then all my progress notes will be: "Agree with medical student <copy and paste their progress note>". It's a lot less work. 
  • So medical students are pretty much the bottom of the totem pole. During rounds, one resident carried around a laptop; another resident jokingly told him to give it to the med student to hold. I interjected, "I don't mind, but if you're passing it down the line - I'm just gonna give it to the pharm student". This provided a lot of laughs. I was definitely joking.... or was I. (I was.) I don't really know what purpose they served during rounds - although we didn't serve much purpose ourselves.
    • No offense to any Pharm students. Both of my parents are pharmacists - they would kill me if I insulted them.
  • Outpatient in family medicine was also great - I was fortunate to have a wonderful preceptor who basically threw me to the wolves on the first day: "okay here is the chart - go see your first patient." For each patient he challenged me to come up with a diagnosis and treatment - and corrected and taught me along the way. I still blank sometimes (or often) when asked random questions on the spot - but I think I've gotten a bit better at it (at least I hope). For this, I thank him and his staff - I truly have learned a great deal and will always remember my first clinical experience as being an exceptional one. 
    • We also had drug reps bring us lunch and talk about their respective drugs every day. While some doctors may not like drug reps - it really helped refresh my pharmacology knowledge. But in all honesty, most of those conversations were about anything but drugs - from cars to ghosts to scotch. (yes, ghosts... that was a weird conversation). 
  • One of the nurses in the office was sick and needed a steroid shot. I offered to give it to her and as I'm administering it - I tell her "This is exciting! I've given an IM injection a couple times to an orange... but you're my first real person!".  I will never forget the look on her face and the laughter of everyone in the office. ... sad thing was - I wasn't joking. It's okay though - I've given dozens of flu vaccinations after that. I've become quite the pro, none of the patients even feel it... or so they tell me.
  • I think I got my first sinus infection. I have some serious post-nasal drip going on right now - I don't like it. 
  • That song Akon made for some Bollywood movie is really catchy. I have no idea what it is but the next brown person I see I'm going to ask them if they want to be my chammak challo. I'll let you know how that goes.
  • My mother called me exclaiming she is going to her first Packers game and wanted advice about what to wear. I was really confused - considering she lives in NC. I later figured she was going to a Panthers game. I wonder what she wore.  I also wonder if she knows what sport she's going to see. 
  • I should really learn how to cook. Eating out this often is making me fat. 
  • I'm going home next weekend!.. for like a day. 
That's all I can think of - for those of you who suffer from sinusitis ... I feel your pain. I wish I had something more interesting to talk about. Maybe no post is better than a boring post like this - I should really think about that next time. sorry.


shark FIN.

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