End of internal, hockey fun, start of peds and whatever else I decide to throw in!

So it has been a wild and crazy 2 weeks and I have lots to catch you up on. Lets start with:

My last week of internal medicine.....what to say but FINALLY!!! I could not wait for this to be over. I have come to the conclusion that internal is not for me. I really felt that many times our patients were not getting better. We had a few successes.....but not nearly as many failures. Overall, medicine is just management.....try to get the patient well enough to discharge them home or to a nursing home so that in a week or so they will return again. Overall, my last week flew by and soon it was friday and I was saying goodbye and heading out to:

The Yankee ticker tape parade!!! I decided since I was getting out early I was going to head down to lower manhatten to see if I could catch a glimpse of any of the World Series Champs. Wow, was it packed!!! There were so many people all wearing their yankee blue (i actually was one of the few not wearing anything remotely yankee). I managed to crawl up onto a firetruck parked on a side street, but because there were about 40 other people on top of the truck I couldn't see anything but the tops of the floats. I may have caught a glimpse of one Yankee but I honestly couldn't tell you who. I quickly decided that I had had enough and tried to embark back to Brooklyn to find that most of the subways were shut down because of the parade. So, I had to walk about 15 minutes to another station closer to the brooklyn bridge. Not all was lost...on the way home I picked up some lunch sushi:

Back at my place I pounded said sushi and then headed out to Penn Station to catch my train. I was headed to Albany to see Mit, Dy, Laura, Sacco and the rest of the CNY wrecks in a hockey tournament. Unfortunately, they lost all of their games but I had a great time. I got to hang out at Roberta's house and eat some great lasagna and of course spend a gorgeous Sunday afternoon outside stacking wood. After, we had pizza, wings, and ice cream (I had a peanut butter sundae....yummy!!!). Then, I headed back on the train to NYC. Arrived at 12am at Penn Station, pushed my way through thousands of Bruce Springsteen fans (of course there had to be a concert at Madison Square Garden on this night), hopped the Q train to Brooklyn, and was in bed by 1am:

For my early wake-up call at 5am!! It was my first day of Pediatrics and I was looking forward to it. Although I know that I am not interested in Peds as a profession, I am aware that if I do go into Emergency Medicine I will have to deal with kids all the time. So, I decided to try and learn as much as I can during this rotation. I found out early Monday morning that I am in the nursery all this week, except for wednesday because its Veteran's Day and I get it off:

The nursery actually is not bad at all. Most of the babies are only a few days old. They cry and little but not much, and if they cry too much you just stick a pacifier of sugar water in their mouths and they quite right down. I got to examine babies, I did a few heel sticks for blood draws, I saw 2 lumbar punctures (to rule out meningitis), I did a circumcision (and a fine job I must say!!!), and of course, I got to watch a few live births and C-sections because we are in the room to take care of the baby once it is delivered. I got to rub some nasty white stuff off, listen to a newborn's heart (murmur and all), and suction the mouth and nose. I wasn't expecting to like the nursery as much as I did.....overall I had a really great time and a great experience:

Saturday was Ishie's b-day and she wanted to celebrate at the Bohemian Beer Garden in Queens. I had never taken the N train to Astoria before and what a long ride from Brooklyn (over an hour). The beer garden was awesome although we didn't get a chance to go outside because it was raining. It is a Czech restaurant and bar. We ordered a few pitchers of Czech beer and I had some potato pierogies and sauerkraut along with an apple strudel for dessert (all very good). I only stayed for 3 hours because I had to head home early....I had call today and I didn't want to be overly tired:

Call went well today. I got there at 7am, we had signout of all the patients to my team, we did rounds on all the patients and soon it was 10am. I helped the intern write a few progress notes and discharge summaries. I then helped the senior and intern with a delivery; natural with no pain meds.....OUCH!!!! And was she screaming!! I took a history from a new admission for my first write-up, and then the Senior resident sent my home. I got home about 3pm. I decided to go for a run in the park since it was gorgeous out today and I didn't want to miss a day like this, especially since it is almost December and the weather will turn very cold soon!

So tomorrow starts Week #2 in Pediatrics. I am in the outpatient clinic all week. I hear it is very busy for the doctors anyway. I mostly get to follow and observe. I love having these little 6 week rotations because they go by so quickly!!!!

I hope everyone has a great week. Hopefully I won't go 2 more weeks until my next update.....of course, you all know me by now :) :) Take care!!!