Busy week.....

I just ended week #2 of Psych. The experiences are getting better and better as this rotation moves on. This week, I had the pleasure of meeting a 31 year old gentleman. He is very intelligent and goal oriented. He is a writer of screen plays for theater and movies. During the interview he spoke well and there was rarely a hint as to what this young man's troubles were. Until he was asked "Who brought you here?" Then the floodgates opened and he started spewing out delusions of a secret government conspirarcy against him that involved the military, how he had lots of proof and was prepared to go to the Civil Rights Court....but then they found out and started teleporting razor blades to his eyes, mouth, and rectum and eventually they found him....beat him up (this is partly true considering he resisted NYPD arrest, attacked an officer and they had to subdue him; he had some bruises and cuts on his face)....and placed him in this maximum security facility (the Psych floor he is currently on) where he has no access to the outside world. I had a chance to read some of his writings and they were quite amazing. He also has a blog which clearly shows his delusions and train of thought regarding those that are after him. Unfortunately for this young man, he has suffered from mental illness since 14 and refuses to take his medications because he firmly believes there is nothing wrong with him. It seems his only option now is to be placed in a state mental facility for long term treatment and care.

Disappointment this week as the women's USA hockey team could not beat Canada and settled for a silver medal. I was very upset. Although, I will say that those Canadian women sure know how to party....beer and cigars!!! Hey, its hockey and a gold medal. If I won an olympic gold medal I would be out there doing the same exact thing!!!

Alison left NYC :( and headed back to California. With the snow storm that came through NYC on thursday/friday it looked as if her timing was really good. Except now the temps are pushing into the 40's (great running day today), so she may have left a little too early. But, hopefully she will be back in the summer and the fun in the city will continue. The best part about Alison leaving the city.....her, layne, and myself had dinner with a doctor who was our neighbor in Grenada. This doctor is now doing a residency at Maimonides. The dinner (Indian food) was fantastic and it was really great to catch up on everyone's lives....especially Layne since I haven't seen her since December!!!

Today is February 28th!!! Tomorrow starts March!!! The time is flying and I have so much to do. I am busy studying for Step 2 and the test is fast approaching (only 5 more weeks :( I also have to work on my personal statement for residency programs....which is a work in progress ALWAYS!! I loathe writing about myself....and just when I think my statement is good, I end up re-reading it....hating it....and starting over. So, I am on draft 43!! LOL

Did I mention it snowed her in NYC??? Normally, snow here is like a few inches or so....that doesn't even compare to what we get upstate. But betweeen Thursday and Friday night, this massive Northeastern storm dumped about 2-3 feet on NYC and for here, that is alot!!! There were so many cars/trucks/buses trapped and stuck in the snow. I of course managed to make it to work on Friday only to find out that all of our lectures were cancelled and we could go home. Getting to work only took me 30 minutes but getting home was almost an hour and a half!!!

Okay, back to some studying. I was going to watch the men's hockey final....USA vs. Canada, but I am still disappointed about the women's loss and I have alot of work to do. I do hope the men can win the gold though!!! Everyone have a great night :)

:)

Yes, that would be a smiley face.....because I just watched USA beat Canada in an Olympic grudge match!! (men's hockey) It was a great game, made better by 2 beers and some potato skins. Dane was gracious enough to invite me and several others to his hood (Bay Ridge), to watch this game at the Salty Dog.....an old firehouse turned bar. Awesome place!!! Good food!! Lots of tv's!! I even got my pic with the resident Dalmation:Today was an overall nice day. I woke up and decided that since I had spent the entire day yesterday in my apt studying for the Step, that I was going to do something fun today. So, I called Daniel up to see if he could come out and play.....he could, so away we went.

First stop, Chelsea's to see the new addition to the family...LOLA!!! Matt and Chelsea rescued this adorable Pit bull mix and she is the sweetest, most lovable dog ever. We took her out for a walk....went to the pet store.....then to the dog park. Every step of the way, she was adorable.

Then, Daniel and I headed into the city for some comfort Japanese food....and hot chocolate at The City Bakery (its the hot chocolate festival). It was a very rich hottie, but super yummy!!

Sadly, Daniel and I had to part ways as he was off to a pool party and I needed to watch some hockey!!!

I know you are all interested in how my first week of Psych went....it went well. The program is very structured, which is nice. I get to sit in on interviews with patients, and some have been down right entertaining!!! This week's recap of interviews include:

- the lady who thinks her stepmother is hiring people to rape and kill her, and therefore tried to "get her first".

- the young man who says jesus is telling him to "get his lithium NOW" and that he will die a horrible death without it.

- the middle aged man who tried to slit his wrists, but after the first attempt realized he is not very good at it and became extremely depressed, thus voluntarily admitting himself into the hospital. With all honestly, looking at the wound on his left wrist, my cat could have scratched deeper. We also learned that he spent his entire disability check of $1900 for this month on crack.

Overall, I really like the resident I am assigned to and my supervising attending is great too. And, there has been a lot of study time which I have been utilizing for Step 2. I will be sure to post a more "play by play" of the psych day later in the week. Right now, I am off to bed.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Take care. :)

End of Ob...trip upstate....Psych!!!

Recap of the last week:

So last wednesday was my final call in Ob/gyn and was I ever busy!! I had the pleasure of sharing my call with Dane (fellow medical student extraordinaire). We took turns scrubbing in for c-sections which by the end of the night totalled 5. The highlight of the night was my lone vaginal delivery. Dane was scrubbed on a section and I decided to help the midwife who was very busy (side note: big storm the night before caused alot of snow and icy conditions which in turn led to alot of people calling in and the unit being very short-handed). The pregnant mother was a russian woman who was about to have her 1st child (2 prior pregnancies were miscarriages). So, the midwife, nurse, and myself all helped deliver the baby....A GIRL!!! The mother and her family were so happy. About an hour later, while I was eating dinner and the midwife calls me and says "I have a surprise for you, come down to the unit." So, I go downstairs and she hands me a 750ml bottle of Cognac VSOP and a box of Godiva chocolates. Apparently the family of the above woman bought me, the midwife, and nurse celebratory alcohol and chocolate . I was completely stunned. This was by no means a cheap bottle of alcohol (or chocolates). I went to the woman's room and thanked her which got me numerous thanks in return. I was very surprised and humbled by the whole experience.....and very grateful. Of course, I shared my good fortune with Dane....I don't drink Cognac so I gave him the bottle to take on his ski trip. Hopefully, he enjoyed it :)

After my written exam on friday (no need to explain because I am sure I did well), I packed my things and headed to Albany courtesy of Mit and Roberta who bought me round trip train tics for my b-day. Friday night I attended a Hawaiian party (great food)!! Saturday I drove with Mit and Roberta to Ithaca to see some hockey, and then drove back to Albany (6 hours is a long time in the car, but the DP dough made up for it). I had breakfast with Alana and Cynthia on Sunday morning. Enjoyed a nice Valentine's day dinner of meatloaf with Mit and Roberta on Sunday night. And relaxed on monday until my train left. It was a very nice break from the city and I am thankful to Roberta and Mit for the wondeful weekend!! Can't wait to see you both in Vermont!!!

Yesterday started Psych at Maimo and the day was filled with running around getting IDs, and computer training and meeting with our teams. I am assigned to the 6th floor which is an inpatient floor. Today I arrived at 8am for morning rounds. At 9am, I sat in on a group discussion with about 7 patients (very interesting conversations and opinions shared). At 9:30 I was able to sit in on a patient interview. This patient was admitted the evening before. His story on how he ended up at Maimo was very interesting. By the end of the 30 minute interview it was clear that this gentleman was severely bipolar and currently in a manic episode. After the interview, I sat with the resident and discussed his diagnosis and treatment plan. At 10:30 we had grand rounds followed by 11:30 medical clearance rounds. I ate lunch and then headed to the library to read up on Bipolar as well as schizophrenia. Lecture was cancelled, so I was able to head home a little early (or so I thought........)

I have to catch the bus to Maimo which is nice because it picks me up right in front of my building. However, waiting to return from the hospital can be annoying and at this time of year, very cold. So, I left the hospital and headed to the bus stop and.....missed the bus by 20 seconds (it was pulling away as I turned the corner). So, I had to wait 15 minutes for the next one which really turned into 25 minutes because of traffic. Finally on the bus, I thought I was almost home free. But, about 10 minutes into the ride the bus driver pulls over and tells us we have to disembark and wait for another bus. No explanation is given by this driver. WTF??? So about 20 of us pile off and wait.....and wait.....and wait. Finally a bus comes and this one makes it to my apt building....about 65 minutes after I left the hospital (normally should take 15 min). I was so chilled to the bone that once home I jumped into a steaming hot shower for 30 minutes and then proceeded to climb under my electric blanket!!!

I am done typing for tonight...have to get back to my studying. I hope everyone has a great night! :)

"You are pretty...and the boys, they are only after one thing....SEX!"

I am not even going to apologize for not posting in weeks. It really is no use considering I am a crappy blogger. I try to remember to post, but then I get sidetracked. Tonight, I just happened to be looking at another blog and thought "maybe I should post to mine"...thinking it had only been a week or so. No, not even close....try 4 weeks :( I have alot of catching up to do. So here is the short version:

This is the last week of Ob/Gyn....YAY!!!! It seemed only slightly shy of 6 weeks ago I started this rotation. I have my last overnight call as a medical student tomorrow. Overall, the calls were okay. I got to deliver a few babies....scrub on some c-sections....and spend lots of time reading and learning (considering it can take hours from the start of labor until the end). The past 3 weeks I have been in Ob clinic. Lots of checking the position of the baby, measuring the fundus, finding fetal heart sounds on portable dopplers. I also was able to do a dozen pelvic exams with specimen collection...have to protect those babies from Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Group B strep!!!

Today I had my oral exam with the Director of the Department. Hard to prepare for an exam from someone you have not formally met. She is a very busy woman!! The oral went well though. Her questions were thorough without being ridiculously hard. She also explained and did some mini teaching during the exam. I got the impression that she loves to teach and I think we would have benefitted from having more exposure with her. Overall, my oral exam went really well. I have the written portion on Friday and then I am officially done.

My caption for this blog entry is courtesy of Dr. L, one of the funniest Ob doctors I have met. He tells it like it is. One of his favorite words is Bullshit and he uses it alot!! Here is a play by play of his interaction with one patient today:

Dr. L: What are you planning on using for birth control after the baby is born?
Patient: Ummm.....not sure
Dr. L: You know, you are a pretty woman and the boys, they are only after one thing from you....SEX!! Trust me, I know.
Patient: (just giggles)
Dr. L: I won't even suggest Depo Provera....you know why??
Patient: No
Dr. L: Because it will make your ass fat!
Patient: (giggles more)
Dr. L: How about an IUD....there is no way you will get a fat ass from that.
Patient: Can I think about it?
Dr. L: You want to think about getting a fat ass or using an IUD?
Patient: The IUD
Dr. L: Of course, think about it and get back to me.

How I will miss following that man!!!

Before I go, I would just like to post the following:

A new addition to the other 4 :) :) And I absolutely LOVE IT!!!!!

Take care everyone. Have a great night!!!

Week 2 down......

Okay, so I am about to go to bed and realized "CRAP.....I haven't blogged in almost a week!!" So, this may be a little random because I have alot on my mind, but my fingers don't feel like typing. Here goes:

My 2nd call for Ob/gyn was last Sunday.....it sucked....badly!!! Got to assist in one surgery, ectopic pregnancy, which was cool to see. But NO DELIVERIES....vaginal or cesearean. Talk about a very boring day and night. I went to bed around 9:30pm....oh, I should also mention I got yelled at by the attending. Long story, but I will admit I was partially to blame.....maybe 10%. Ask me about it when you see me next and I will give you all of the play by play details!!!

This week I began training for a half marathon. While home during the Christmas break, I was reading an issue of the Fitness Magazine and my mom pointed out a 12.1 women's only marathon in Central Park the end of April. She said "You should do this!!" My first thought was "Are you crazy.....my knee would never allow it!" But, over the last few weeks I have been thinking about it because it won't seem to leave my brain. So here is my plan. Over the next 2 months I am going to gradually build up my running distance. If I can hit 12 miles by early March, then I am going to register for the race. On Friday, I ran 6.75 miles in 1 hour 9 minutes and 45 seconds. That is the most I have run in a very, very, VERY long time. And boy was I tired!!! Today, I did it again (partially why I will be passing out very shortly). I really hope I can realize this goal!!! Not only would it be fun to run a half marathon, but I can't imagine how skinny I will look come April :) :)

I am also into week 2 of my studying for Step 2. I have decided to take this April 4th. Many of my friends and fellow medical school colleagues think I am insane for taking it this early. But I figure I can take the next 3 months during Ob/Gyn and Psych to study. And, if I don't feel prepared, I can always postpone it. So far, I am doing really well on my practice exams. Unfortunately, I didn't do as much studying as I wanted to over this long weekend....but that is okay. I can make up for it this week.

I am on call tomorrow with Dane! YAY!! At least I will have someone to talk to, or complain to! Hopefully I get to see SOMETHING tomorrow. I will fill you all in later in the week.

Oh, and......I got to do my first pelvic exam on Friday all by myself!!! Although the attending was there to cheer me on (and give me little pointers). Put the speculum in....did the Pap exam...did the bimanual.....I felt like an Ob/gyn!!!

I hope everyone has a great night!!!! Take care :)

1 week down......5 to go!

One week of Ob/gyn completed.....which also included my first call, on the first day! I decided to volunteer because what else was I going to do on Monday night. It was a fairly quiet night. Only 1 c-section....I went to bed around 11pm and woke up at 6:30am. Then the best part occurred, I got the rest of the day off!!!! NOTHING like surgery where we had to suffer through a whole day of work post call. It was nice having that day off....I actually got alot done. I also had plenty of rest time to attend Daniel's birthday party.....drank alot of wine :)

What to say about Ob/gyn at Coney Island? Well, it is not well organized (not like pediatrics or surgery and worse than internal). There are no residents from Maimo, just PAs and midwives who deliver. The attendings are all overworked and it clearly shows. There is a lot of down time to do nothing which in a way I am not complaining about because I am currently studying for Step II. But it does get annoying to show up to clinic at 9am to only have to wait for the attendings to strole in at 10:30am. Overall, I am just hoping that 5 weeks come and go very quickly.

Call #2 is tomorrow so hopefully it is busy for a sunday.

In other news, according to UPS my computer should arrive here on Tuesday.....YAY!!! What happen you ask?? It broke.....the screen would freeze over and over. Diagnostics run by the service guy at Best Buy showed a bad hard drive. So, it had to be shipped out for repair. A one week without a computer adventure turned into 2 1/2 weeks. I almost had to come back here to Brooklyn without a computer. But Walt let me borrow his very old Dell which I am totally grateful for. He also picked up and shipped my computer.....Thanks Walt!!! Hopefully Toshie can give me another year or so....then I can buy myself a new one as a graduation gift :)

Well, I have another hour or so of studying before bed time. Have to prepare myself for monster #2 in approximately 12 weeks!!! :) Everyone have a great night.

2010

Well, it is official....I made it through another year!! More importantly, I am even closer to becoming a doctor...only 18 months to go! I know this next year will fly by, but I still wish it would move a little quicker :)

Today I leave to head back to Brooklyn. These last 2 weeks have been very nice. I had the wonderful opportunity to see my family and my puppies :) In addition, I got to hang out with so many of my amazing friends who I am truly lucky to have in my life. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see everyone :( But I am hoping to make up for that this year.

Before I get to the important thing, let me just show you the best xmas present ever:

I LOVE THIS HAT!!!!!!

Okay, so now to my new year's resolution. I have been thinking about this for the past few days. And it has been a serious internal discussion because if you know me at all, I don't normally make these resolutions. I don't really see the point. So what if it is a new year and it happens to be the first day....you should be making mini resolutions everyday! But, I decided to cave in to popularity and force my brain to come up with something, anything....and came out with a zillion things I wanted to accomplish this year. So, in order to make as many of the pieces fit, I came up with this:

In 2010, I resolve to push myself to a new level, emotionally, mentally, and physically....to strive to be a better me everyday.

I hope you all had a safe and happy holidays. Good luck in 2010!!! :)

Merry Christmas!!!

So it has finally come.....that day that you spend hours in traffic for.....that day you baked thousands of sugar cookies for (and spent days frosting).....that day you have to see certain relatives because if you don't, you will hear about it for the next 364 days.....that DAY where you tear through bright colored and fancy paper to say "Gee thanks, I always wanted one" when in reality you had never seen or wanted anything remotely like it......its CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!

I have been up since 6am and since I can't open any presents until mom and fur get out of bed (it could be 11am before that happens) I have been busy doing none other than USMLE World questions!! The life of a soon to be doctor....not even a holiday can prevent me from learning!! Although, I have realized that doing questions while surrounded by cookies is not a very good idea. I have devised a way whereby when I answer a question correct I get to eat a cookie....my percentage of correct questions has increased dramatically, but my sleek figure is taking a huge hit right now!!

So, how has my vacation been since I have been home?? I have seen a hockey game, had dinner at a sports bar with friends, met Kevin (who does not like me at all), eaten pizza 2x, seen my uncle dave (who can now stop bugging me on facebook :), had coffee at Dunkin Donuts with an old friend who provided me lots of material for writing a book, made sugar cookies, eaten sugar cookies and peanut butter cookies, and jelly cookies, and brownies.....and watched Law and Order SVU marathons as well as all 6 of the Star Wars movies on TV.

And now onto today, where I get to open presents from Santa....watch christmas movies....eat lots of food....maybe go to the movies....and see my sister's band play at the Electric Company later tonight. Busy day....but looking forward to it!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!! Have a safe and happy holiday! :)

Bye bye pediatrics!!

Today was my last day of peds....wow, did it go extremely fast. These 6 week rotations are great!

This week I had my oral exam, my presentation, and my written exam. Overall, I feel everything went really well. So, what did I like the best about peds?? I liked the nursery...these little ones do cry, but if you stick a pacifer dunked in sugar water in their mouths they are happy. I also got to do a circumsicion which was a great experience! The ED was great too. I liked having the opportunity to get a patient, ask questions, figure out what is going on and present to the attending. But, I also like emergency so I may be biased. Seeing a seizure patient and some fractures were great. Seeing a hundred kids with fever and stuffy nose got a little "routine". The floor wasn't too bad, but like everything in rotations, it all depends on your residents. We were lucky as this months batch of residents were all pretty good. They were knowledgeable, fun, and best of all, they liked to teach/explain. The teaching attending on the floor this month was phenomenal as well. It was a joy to listen to her. Overall, the attendings at Coney Island are all helpful and also love to share/teach. I feel like this program is one of the best that I have rotated at so far.

So, I am all packed and ready to head out bright and early tomorrow morning to catch the Maple Leaf home!!! Can't wait to see my family, my puppies, my friends...and just relax a little. I do have some work to do, but at least I won't be in a rush to complete it. When I get back in 2 weeks, I start Ob/gyn.....hopefully the rotation goes as quickly as pediatrics did!!

I hope everyone has a great night!!!! :)

Emergency....parade....being hit on??

I just ended week 3 of pediatrics, and my first week in the pediatric emergency department. So far, the ED is going okay. The morning is very boring because there are no patients. So, I basically bring a book and read. Usually about 11am, it starts to pick up. We get the routine patients: sore throat, stuffy nose, fever. And then we get some interesting ones: 15 year old who was dunking, fell, and subluxated the radius/ulna. His wrist/forearm was shaped like an "S". Very cool, for me of course, he was screaming in pain. I got to interview the 1 year old with Kawasaki's disease. I missed actually seeing it in the ED because the patient came in the evening. Apparently, the signs/symptoms were very apparent. By the time I saw the child Friday morning, only a hint of those remained.

Of course, Friday was extremely busy in the ED (day after Thanksgiving and many kids have it off). The day started off slow, but by 1pm, the waiting area was packed. I had the pleasure of doing my first psych eval/interview on a 17 year old who "wanted to see a psychiatrist". This particular patient had a history of bipolar, cutting, and suicidal thoughts. During my interview the following exchange occurred:

Patient: Are you single?

Me: (trying to refocus the interview): I am more interested in talking about why you are here.

Patient: I don't mean to offend you....I just think you are F*****G hot!

Me: So, when was the last time you though about suicide

Patient: I really think you are F******G attractive!

Me: (Just standing there, waiting for an answer to my previous questions)

Patient: Who knew I would be so into a doctor?

At this point I decided that interviewing the mother may be more beneficial in obtaining answers to my questions. Eventually, the patient answered my questions but not without referencing "my attactiveness".

Around 3:30pm, we received a 15 year old female who had 2 seizures at home. The resident and myself were about to collect blood work when she seized. I had seen a absence seizure before during internal, but never a generalized clonic seizure. For almost 5-6 minutes, this poor girl was shaking, eyes rolled back in her head, and some muscles fixed/rigid. We tried to pry her jaw open with a jaw-thrust to keep her from biting her tongue. We applied oxygen, and tried to suction her mouth. After the episode she remained unconscious. We quickly collected urine samples and blood samples. By this time it was 5:30pm, and the attending said that she was just waiting on CT scan so I could go home. I felt so sorry for the girl, but inside, I was ecstatic! This whole episode reinforced my desire to become an Emergency Physician (not that I really needed it: I got more than enough reinforcement from my surgery and medicine clerkships).

So, I have one more week in the emergency department and then 2 weeks on the floor, and then pediatrics will officially be done. 6 weeks flies by so much faster than 12 weeks :)

Lets briefly talk about thanksgiving. I decided not to go home and stay in NYC. So, I got up early (4:30am) and headed down to the Macy's Parade. I got a great spot on 57th and 7th. I waited there for 3 hours, but it was well worth it. The parade live was so much better than on TV. I never knew that the handlers of all the balloons chant the name of their balloon as they walk in the parade.

So, as the handlers of Spider-man walked by they were all chanting "Spidey", "Spidey", "Spidey" in unison. I heard "Kermit", "Buzz", "Kitty" (as in hello kitty), "Dough boy", and many more. In addition, everyone in the parade was so happy and nice, yelling out "Happy Thanksgiving", throwing confetti, and high fiving people along the route. I had a great time and I am so happy I went!!

After the parade, I took the subway down to Chelsea and watched the movie New Moon. It was okay. I think you needed to read the books before watching the movie to fully appreciate what was going on because they left alot out. I then ate my dinner at the Malibu diner. I had Turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots/peas, stuffing, salad, bread, pumpkin pie, and a glass of wine - all for $21.95!! YUMMY! After dinner, I walked around the city for a while and then headed home. Overall, a very adventurous and fun day!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, and if you shopped on black friday, I hope you survived!! I will be home in 3 weeks!! Take care.

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!!!

Adventures in Rainy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!! Yesterday night was a blast. Some friends and I decided to dress up as characters from Alice in Wonderland. I was the white rabbit.









Ishie was Alice.












Daniel was the Mad Hatter.
Matt was the Catepillar.

Chelsea was the Queen of Hearts.









We were joined by a bunch of other "characters" in what was our first Halloween in NYC!!!


* There are a few more pics of people I don't have yet!!

We all headed out to the NYC parade thinking how fun it would be to walk in our costumes and also to see everyone else dressed up. Unfortunately....it started to pour. Being wet, cold, and needing some adult beverages plus a bathroom stop, we all decided to head back to Brooklyn. Only to find out that the train we took to Manhatten was not returning back to Brooklyn (crappy MTA and their construction). Our attempts at hailing 3 taxi's also failed miserably. So, we ran through the rain to city hall to board another subway and finally made it back to Brooklyn Heights where we ate some yummy backed ziti and pumpkin pies courtesy of Chelsea!! Then the few remaining brave ones headed out for a drink at a local bar.

Overall it was an adventurous night. At least I can say that I was at the Halloween parade in NYC, standing in line for 45 minutes waiting to march, only to be spoiled by rain!!! Typical NYC...you always have in mind what may happen, but it always turns into something else!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Take care.

Exams finished.....2 more weeks of internal to go!

Today marked my second, and last exam in Internal Medicine. I had my oral exam with the Director of the program. We only see him once.....for 15 minutes....for the oral. And its worth 20% of our grade. So, I studied extremely hard because I really wanted to impress him. Did I impress??? Not to sure. But I did get a "you did a good job" at the end and a handshake to go with it, so hopefully he was impressed!

Last week we had the written exam. I didn't even try to impress on that one. In fact, I didn't study at all. I figured if this exam was like any of the others from our school, it would be full of grammatical mistakes with questions written in one language and translated into english and answer choices that range from obscure....to maybe this fits....to none of these are even correct! I was not disappointed in my assumptions. I always seem to walk out of an SGU test thinking "I hope to god that the adminstration of another medical school never sees this test".

I did get some good news from our current residents. They love me!!! They said I was one of the hardest working students they have had, I always seem prepared, and I have been a tremendous help to them. They both gave me an excellent evaluation.

Well, I only have 2 weeks left....actually I have exactly 8 days. I found out today that we have next Tuesday off. Apparently voting in NYC is a holiday. I'll be voting for my favorite beer on that day!!

I hope everyone has a great night. :)

Happy Tyrant Day!!

Today was kind of nice. I had a day off due to Columbus Day, although I have to admit, I hate this holiday. In fact, I don't think it should be a holiday at all in the United States considering Columbus didn't even set foot in North America. I will give him credit for setting out across a vast ocean to "explore". But we all know he wasn't the first to find the new land. Leif Erikson did it years before him.....and the Native Americans hundreds of years before both of them. I remember growing up and being told in school that Christopher Columbus was this great explorer who was told the world was flat and therefore he could not get to the Asian continent but persisted in his dream. Funny thing is.....it is all crap!!! Search wikipedia about Christopher Columbus and you will find that he was not a great explorer at all. He was ruthless, mean-spirited, and incredibly selfish. At that time, many scholars, explorers, and mapmakers did not believe the world was flat...in fact, they knew it to be round. What they disputed was Columbus' calculations of how far he had to travel west to reach Asia (he was about 20,000km off!) and if not for his dumb luck in running into another land he would have perished at sea. His discovery led to thousands of people being killed, raped, or sold into slavery. He was even arrested for his crimes against humanity by the Spanish government (but later pardoned).

Of course, then I wondered why we are called "America". Turns out we are named after Amerigo Vespucci, another explorer of sorts. Although, he didn't really find anything new. A german mapmaker named Martin Waldseemuller was the first to create a map in 1507 with the new lands. For some strange reason he picked Amerigo to honor. Funny thing is that about 5 years later, this mapmaker had second thoughts about the naming and tried desperately to change it with no luck.

Now why do we celebrate Columbus Day anyway?? Leave that up to FDR. During the depression he wanted to create a national holiday in October in order to give workers a day off. He came up with this one. Of course today, many states don't celebrate this holiday. And some have changed it to suit there needs. Hawaii celebrates "Explorer Day" to kind of honor all. South Dakota calls it "Native American Day". Tennesee moves the day to the friday after thanksgiving to give all an extended vacation (I like this one :) In Illinois, school districts move the holiday to December 23rd.

And here in New York, well we have the day off. And apparently there was a huge parade down 5th avenue today to celebrate Columbus (i missed that one). Instead, I spent the day doing a little studying, some laundry, grocery shopping, and relaxing :)

Everyone have a great day!

A very amazing end to the week!

Wow, the past few days have been amazing....and interesting. Its really sad to know it is ending. Hopefully next week brings more excitement. Lets recap:

On Thursday we were assigned to our new floor, new residents, and new attending. The new floor is the same old sick patients. My new residents are great. I have one PGY-3 and one PGY-1 (intern). The intern is still learning and seems a bit overwhelmed so far. But our PGY-3 knows his shit. Very smart guy and loves to teach. He is so interactive which is great for me. In addition, our attending is AWESOME!!! We get to spend the whole morning with her, almost 3-4 hours. She loves students.....loves teaching more. And in 2 days, I have learned more on the floors with her than at any other time during this rotation. She requires alot from us: we have to divide patients up, know their history in the hospital, know the current problems, devise a plan of management, and continue our follow-up until their discharge. In addition, we have daily reading assignments on important medical topics (we covered pericarditis and pericardial effusions on friday). I feel like part of a team and its a great feeling. The only downside....being at the hospital at 6am to accomplish all of the above. But it is okay....I have the pleasure of being with this attending for the next 4 weeks and I am going to take full advantage.

So on friday, a fellow student was having a b-day extravaganza at a sushi bar called Aishya. For $40 it was all you can eat and drink. The sushi was not limited to cheap rolls. All rolls were included and I took full advantage by ordering some of the expensive ones. For the drinking portion, it was sake bombs. I had never had one before. Basically you are given beer and sake. You pour a little beer into your glass and then place your chopsticks flat on the top of the glass. You pour some sake into a small cup and then balance this cup on your chopsticks. Then, you pound the table....sake falls into beer....and you chug. I had four of these before the food even came and I was SOOOOO DRUNK! Then I ate....had some more to drink (although I just drank sake...no beer)....ate some more and drank some more. 2 hours later we were headed to union square to a bar to continue the celebration. I had one glass of water and decided to head home. It was 11pm! But I couldn't keep my eyes open. And did I mention I was really drunk. So, I was at home and in bed by 11:35pm on a friday. And I did wake up saturday morning with a slight hangover :) Only slight though......

Saturday night was my first ever Brandi Carlile concert at the Beacon Theater. I have listened to her music for a few years now and she has an amazing voice. My good friend Kate has been telling me that she is even more amazing live and she was absolutely correct. Seeing Brandi Carlile live was a great experience. I got to the theater around 7:45 and watched her opening act, Katie Herzig. I had heard the name before but never really heard the music. She was good...just not my style of music....much more happy, peppy country music. But still good. And then Brandi Carlile performed and I was blown away. Not only by her voice, but her entire stage performance. She is a great performer. Her band was equally fun to watch. I am so happy I saw the show and I really can't wait to see her again when she plays in NYC. If you have the opportunity to hear her music please do. You will not be disappointed.

While at the concert, my friend Daniel texted me to see if I wanted to see Lady Gaga. I respectfully declined knowing I was getting the better show :)

So, that is my last 3 days in review. The prior 4 days were not very exciting except for Heroes....very exciting!!! And Grey's is doing a pretty decent job this year too! Today is a major study day because this week I am on call both Monday and Friday. Have to do my write-ups for my preceptor now so I don't get behind.

Which reminds me. Pink is playing tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. I absolutely love Pink. I really wanted to go but then found out I was on call. I guess it is just as well considering I would have had to pay $150 for a ticket. NYC is just so damn expensive. Hopefully someday in the future I can see her live again. Her shows are fantastic as well.

Take care everyone!!

Week #6....check!

One more week of internal medicine down. It seems forever ago that I started. But, time has flown by just a little bit more these past 2 weeks, I think mostly because our residents are trusting us more and more each day and allowing us to do more and more. Unfortunately, this is our last week with this resident crew. Next week, we switch resident teams, floors, attendings and call nights. Good thing I didn't buy that $150 Pink concert ticket for October 5th. I may be on call that night :) So, here is a recap of the last week, starting with last weekend!!

Mit and Roberta came down to the city....YAY!!! Morgan, a friend from Roberta's work, flew in from Australia. He had a hotel room at the New Yorker, so Mit and Roberta came to hang out in the city on Saturday. We had brunch at Friend of the Farmer, which was excellent. We then strolled along the East River, headed to central park, sat on a bench and "people watched", headed back to the hotel room, got ready for a night out, had Mexican food at a restaurant in the lower east side, headed to the slipper room for a burlesque show. As always, the slipper room didn't disappoint me!! It was a great night, and I'm so happy that Mit and Roberta came down. And of course, it was really nice to meet Morgan.

So, on Monday started Week #6. As always we had some interesting patients. Lots of "chest pain" and "shortness of breath". I loved the patient who complained about SOB but refused to quit smoking cigarrettes or smoking crack/snorting cocaine. Her response was "how the hell does that have anything to do with my asthma?" I give our attending lots of credit for trying to explain it to her but she still didn't get it. I'm sure we will be seeing her again soon. I was on call Tuesday night and we had 1 very interesting case. A woman who just gave birth the week before came in with shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, and heart palpitations. It turns out she had these symptoms during her last month of pregnancy as well. The diagnosis: pregnancy induced dilated cardiomyopathy. Fortunately for her, it is reversible. The other interesting case was assigned to our floor on Thursday. 22 year old female with tremors, sweating, palpitations, anxiety. One look at her neck gave the diagnosis away....she had a huge thyroid. Blood samples were sent to test for antibodies but everyone is in agreement that it is probably Grave's Disease. The good thing for her is that it is completely treatable as long as she is compliant with medication. The hard part will be the next few months of trying to figure out what her medication dosage should be.

I also had 2 preceptor meeting this week. My preceptor is very good. Not only is he Director of Pulmonology at the hospital, but he is a walking textbook of everything!!! Which makes my meetings with him interesting since I never know what he will ask. The interesting thing is this, every meeting with him he makes a comment about how me and the other student there are dumb. He will make a reference to our IQs and then laugh. Or, he will flat out tell us we are dumb and laugh. I can't figure out if he is really joking or if he is really serious. I think me and the other student do very well with our presentations and answering questions. I feel like pulling in some other students from our program for our meeting and asking the doctor to talk to them. I think in a few moments he would realize that we are intelligent students. I was hopefully planning on asking for a letter of recommendation from this doctor, but not i'm not too sure. My other option was seeing if he would be my preceptor for my medicine sub I elective in 4th year....working my butt off....and hopefully getting a letter then.

Which reminds me, on Tuesday we had a meeting with a current 4th year student about next year....signing up for Step 2....scheduling electives....etc. I have been busy trying to plan my 4th year as to what I will take and when. After 12 weeks of surgery and 6 weeks of medicine, my heart still belongs to Emergency Medicine. I'm sure that won't change after peds, Obgyn, and Psych. I have decided that I want to do a rotation in Emergency at Maimo and one at Methodist. Hopefully I can get them both in before September. For the rest of my electives I am thinking about Neurology, Cardiology, Anesthesia, Peds Emercency, PICU, Family Medicine, Radiology, and Dermatology. If I have extra time available, I may also try Ortho and MICU. Of course, a 2 week course in U/S would be great also. You are probably asking why family medicine?? Well, in order to practice in California or Texas a student must do that elective. I don't want to lose any future opportunities in any state. I'm still trying to plan out my timeline and I'm just hoping everything works out. Of course I will keep you updated!!

Well, I have lots to do today in terms of studying and paper writing. Next saturday I am seeing Brandi Carlisle in concert. And, if I'm not on call 10/5, I will try to land some Pink tickets. So I have to get as much work as possible done between now and then. Take care everyone.

Weekend fun

This weekend was alot of fun!!! It started with Amanda asking me if I would like to attend a Yankee's game on saturday. She happened to have some tickets, and since I had not yet set foot inside the new Yankee stadium, I eagerly said YES!!! So, at 10am saturday morning I made my way to 161st in the bronx.


Very nice stadium!! Inside was even nicer....

Me, posing it up!!

DEREK!!!!

The game....unfortunately, they lost to the Orioles 7-2.

After the game, Amanda and Dy and the peeps they came down with (already forgot their names) had to leave to drive back. So, I hopped on the 4 train and headed down to midtown. Once there, I ran into a street festival. They sell t-shirts, and jewelry, and lots of food. I got a chicken burrito for dinner.....it was very good. Then, on a whim I decided I wanted to see the movie District 9. I have wanted to see it for the last few weeks, but just haven't had the time. I headed to Times Square to Regal. Very good movie. At first I didn't know what was going on. It was shot almost as a documentary, but then the movie picked up and surprisingly, was a little gory. But overall, I thought it was very good. Great special effects. And, an original story!!! During the movie, my tummy didn't feel too good.....damn street chicken burrito. So, after the movie, I headed back home and to bed.

I got up this morning, made some coffee and sat down at my computer to see what events were happening today. NYC.gov has this nice section entitled "events". I found out today was HarborFest.....a celebration of the Dutch settling the city. So, I decided to get ready and head on out there to see what it was about. I jumped on the Q and headed to Times Square, and then walked over to the West Side pier off of 44th St. I grabbed a brochure and headed out on the Water taxi to Battery Park...

Aren't I cute?? :) The guy on the water taxi was hounding me to take my pic......Harbor Fest was all over the city. They had events back at the Pier off of 44th st. Events off of Chistopher St. Events at Battery Park. Events on Governor's Island. Events near the Brooklyn Bride. Many of the events were free. They even offered free bicycle rentals to use on the Hudson boardwalk, but I decided to enjoy the day and walk. So, I walked around Battery Park, enjoyed some Dutch music, had some lunch and then headed back to the Pier for the Oyster and Wine fest. I didn't have any Oysters....just some wine. And, there was also a craft beer judging event there. 12 breweries from Lake Placid to NYC took part (remember, Henry Hudson sailed from NYC to Lake Champlain). They had to enter a beer that would have been brewed 400 years ago. The winner was Brooklyn Brewery with their District 2 beer. After the judging, they had a beer tasting......very good!! Other pictured highlights include:

The city.....sky looks very dark at 11:30am....but by the afternoon, it was blue skies with gorgeous sunny hotness.

This is the "Half Moon"...the ship that Henry Hudson used to sail up the Hudson river. I'm not sure if this is the real ship, or a replica.

This is some Dutch ship....I am really bad remembering people names, how the hell am I going to remember a ship's name I couldn't pronounce. Apparently this was the first ship built in New York by the Dutch in 1614.....this is not a replica...it is the original boat. Behind it is the USS Intrepid. And as I told you, the sky is blue now!!!

At 3:30pm.....after a wine and a few beers at the tasting.....I decided to head to Madison Square Garden to see the NY Liberty play their final home game of the season against the Washington Mystics. As I was standing in line waiting to buy a ticket, this woman comes up to me and the people standing beside me and says "Do you want free tickets?" Apparently she was with the Liberty and she was randomly selecting people to give tickets to. So, I thanked her and headed to my seat.......

Unlike the yankees, the Liberty won!! It was a great game and I am so glad that I decided to go....and that it was free!!! Thanks NY Liberty!!!! I will be sure to go to games next season and pay!!

On the way home, I stopped in Union Square and had Taco Bell. I was really craving a chicken taco!! I also had some nachos supreme.....hey, i walked alot today okay so I can afford the calories!!

Well, that is the end to my weekend. I had a great time.....saw alot....did alot....walked alot!!! Tomorrow starts week 5 of Internal Medicine, and I am on call. Hopefully, we get an interesting case. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Take care.

Click the box medicine

So today was the start of week #4 for Internal Medicine. I can officially say that I am bored out of my mind. I do, however, feel the utmost joy when our residents do or say something so incredibly dumb that you know the attending just wants to slap them silly. Here was last weeks funny moment:

Residents: There is no urine coming out of the foley.
Attending: So, what is your next step?
Residents: Ultrasound of the kidneys....there may be something there.
Attending: (Looking rather annoyed). Don't you want to check the foley first?
Residents: (Dumb looks on there face).
Attending: (Looking more annoyed). Don't you think there could be a blockage or maybe it is in the vagina instead of the urethra???
Residents: (Still with dumb looks on their faces....and not saying anything).
Attending: DID YOU CHECK??
Residents: Uh........................no.
Attending: Go check!!!

This is of course one of many instances where I have come to find out that some residents just lack some common sense. I can see this coming from the intern, but not the second year resident (both of which were part of the conversation above). My friend today put it rather nicely when he stated that the residents practice click the box medicine. Patient presents with this, then it must be this (check). Patient complains of this, then it must be that (check). There is no thinking involved which can lead to some disastrous consequences. The one thing I have learned in medicine is that I do not want to be a click the box doctor!!!

So, this past weekend I decided to travel home to visit. It was my sister's birthday and she wanted to go to the State Fair. I hadn't been to the state fair in 3 years so I was excited. It only took about 1 hour to realize nothing had changed. All the vendors.....all the food....all the rides....all the games....all exactly the same. Even with that, I had a great time. I got chocolate milk for $0.25/each.....I rode the ferris wheel....I saw the horse pull....I had some wine....I ate corn on the cob, a hot dog, a hamburger, a twist with chocolate spinkles, 6 chocolate covered strawberries, a root beer float, a few of my brother's fries, a bite of my mom's roasted prime rib sandwich, a few cubes of NY cheese, a couple of nachos, and lots of water!!! And of course, I walked around all day long and I was exhausted when I got home....passed right out!!! So, going home for the labor day weekend was a great idea.....that, and if I had stayed here in Brooklyn, I would have been in the heart of the weekend long Caribbean festival...and I have already experienced that once!!!! Happy Birthday Randi!!! Everyone have a great night!

Week #2 of Internal Medicine

Well, today started off the 2nd week of IM. My first week was okay. Started off a little slow because its a new rotation and we are getting to know our residents and what is expected, and of course they are getting to know us! The first day of IM was also my first call night which involved me doing alot of sitting around in the ED and reading. So far, alot of internal medicine, at least for us students, is sitting around. Occasionally there is a blood draw, or ekg, or IV line to put in and of course we get volunteered for that. I really don't mind because it gives me something to do. But a vast majority of the time, I am either searching endlessly on Uptodate.com for diseases and treatments, or I am sitting in a corner of Tower 3E reading in my medicine book. After the hectic schedule of surgery, I was looking forward to more time to learn and comprehend. However, I have a feeling that by week 6, this will all be very boring.

Our call schedule is q4 with no weekends, which meant that I was also on call Friday as well. That night was a little more interesting. I did many blood draws, an ABG, and an ekg. I also saw a male patient with liver cirrhosis, hep c, external hemorrhoids, and 2 very large and in charge scrotal hernias. He has had these for over 20 years and currently it looks like 2 medium sized soccer balls dangling between his legs. He says it is painful and uncomfortable to walk.....ya think?? Unfortunately, he can't have surgery because his liver is so bad.

The last patient before I left on friday came in with a severe asthma attack. She had a superimposed upper respiratory infection. We tried several courses of albuterol and solumedrol with no relief so she had to be intubated. She told us she has had this happen in the past, 3 times, and she also said her last one was very painful so she requested to be "put out" for this one. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned. Ativan and propofol was pushed IV and the intubation was very difficult. Turns out, the IV was infiltrated and most of the medication ended up in her arm. They re-established an IV (2 of them) and was able to get her sedated enough to put the endotracheal tube in. However, she started fighting and trying to remove it, so they had to restrain her. I felt bad because she was in obvious pain and distress. I left around 9pm to come home, but I found out today that she did manage to self extubate herself around 11 pm which didn't make the anesthesiologist too pleased.

Today was a rather mundane day, or better yet, an average IM day. I get to the hospital around 7am. I proceed to check the vitals, labs, and radiology reports of our assigned patients. Then we (my 2 residents, a fellow student and myself) do a mini round on all of the patients. At 8:30, the attending shows up and they again go over and round on all the patients. At 10am, we have morning report where we hear of some of the admits from the night before. I have come to find out that IM doctors love to hear themselves talk!! They will debate tiny details for 20 minutes, or at least until they have exhausted every possibility and then they move on. At noon, we have lecture which is good and bad. Good because it gets lecture over with at a decent hour. Bad because it is during lunch and I find myself dozing off. Today was especially bad....the topic was Anion Gap. Very boring.......and easy to fall asleep to!!

The afternoon was really slow until family members of one of our patients showed up and started screaming at the doctors. They were upset, but for good reason. Their father had been in the hospital for 3 days and his condition was worsening. They were also questioning why he was being treated for alcohol detox (for DTs) when he doesn't drink. The daughter was yelling questions and yet none of the doctors were giving her any answers, or if they were, they were not explaining themselves very well at all. Then they walked out of the room with no explanation and she became even more upset. I really couldn't bite my tongue any longer, so I did something I probably shouldn't have, but I answered all of her questions. I explained to her that her father was brought into the hospital by the police department who found him wandering around on a highway very confused and agitated. He could not give us a proper history of what had happened and he showed signs of altered mental status. Because of this, the initial treatment was to rule out the life threatening things that cause altered mental status.....trauma, bleed in the brain, alcohol withdrawal, etc. They started to treat him for DTs and he was responding to the treatment. The doctors were unaware that he had early onset dementia/alzheimers due to boxing injuries sustained for over 30 years and also did not know that he only spoke spanish. I was able to get some more history from the daughter as well as her father's normal baseline which I then passed on to my senior resident. The doctors then began to suspect a possible infectious cause and started the workup for that. I spent 2 hours with the daughter answering all of her questions and helping her to understand. She was very grateful and at one point said "How come you are spending your time to explain this to us when we can't get straight answers out of any of the other doctors". I told her it was because I was a medical student who had more time to devote to answering her questions. She thanked me for helping her and told me that she was sure I would make a great doctor which was a very nice complement.

Of course, it then got me thinking. She was right. All of the other doctors present took no time in explaining anything to her. They just said "Well, we are going to start antibiotics and get a repeat CT and we will go from there." But nothing was explained as to why or even what they were looking for. It made me wonder if being in medicine had caused them to be this careless in dealing with the patient/family or if this is just how they normally deal with things. Up until the point i started to talk to this woman, she was screaming that she was going to sue the hospital for malpractice and have the tv cameras down there. But once I talked with her and explained, she was fine...no threats....she just wanted the best care for her father and she felt like she wasn't getting it or any explanations as to what was being done to treat her father. As a doctor, you can be sure that if it was your family member, you would want the same thing....and in fact demand it. But I feel that many doctors don't step back to see this. And it becomes very costly in the end, because then you are not only dealing with a sick patient but a a very agitated, upset, and angry family whose only option, they feel, is a lawsuit. I can only hope that through my training and beyond I am able to keep my ability to communicate with patients and family members. And to recognize that I may not know all of the answers to every question, but I can do my very best to help find the answers.

I hope everyone has a good night. Take care.

Bye bye surgery!!!

Today was officially my last day for surgery at Coney Island. :) :) I am so happy to be done with this rotation. There are things I will miss, and things that I definitely won't miss. Overall, I thought the rotation was good. We did learn alot, and being a community hospital, we as students were allowed to do so many things (iv's, blood draws, NG tubes, sutures, I&Ds). I was fortunate to have some great residents (especially on call) that were willing to share their knowledge and teach. I was also exposed to some great attending who really care about surgery, their patients, and students. A word of advice for any future Coney Island surgery students: if you really want to learn and be a doer, then this is a great rotation. If you want to hang back and slack, then this is a great rotation too! Basically, its what you put into it!!

Now to recap the week: I was on call sunday night...my last one. I spent it with Scott because he had switched with Brian the week before. It was surprisingly uneventful. No trauma....no surgery....no major issues. Of course we did have one minor issue. A gentleman came in with an abscess near his anus. We had to incise and drain it. This was a major WOW on all fronts. First, he practically jumped off the table when the needle with lidocaine touched him. Then, when it was opened up and draining the stench was nasty....picture the distinct smell of infection laced with pooh. My nose was burning! Then, the inside of the abscess had to be swabbed to break up any loculations, and this poor guy was screaming and crying. Not just screaming, but whaling!!! The others in the ED must have thought he was giving birth or something. I felt really bad for him because you could just tell it was extremely painful.

This week I was in urology and wow did I quickly find out that the land of pee pee was not for me. By tuesday I wanted the week to be over with. I did get to see a few interesting surgeries: circumcision, revision of circumcision, cystoureteroscopy, stent placement, and laser stone removal (which interestingly looked like a game of asteroids on the screen). But overall I found urology to be boring and uneventful.

On wednesday, we had our oral presentations. We started at 8am and ended at 1pm. I asked to go first, just to get it over with. I did mine on Traumatic Aortic Injury. We had 12 minutes to present our topic (and we could not go over for risk of a penalty to our grade). Tuesday night I finished my slides and began to practice presenting when I quickly realized that my talk was well over 30 minutes long. So the process of editing began (good thing I never went into movies). I had trimmed so much out that I was afraid my topic would be boring. So, in order to put some interesting things back, I decided that talking really, really fast would be a good thing :0 Overall, my presentation went really, really well. Dr. L (our preceptor) really liked it and said I hit all of the important points within the allotted time.

Then on thursday, we had our exit interview with Dr. L. He had nothing but great things to say about me. Things like I was very knowledgeable, I used good judgement...I was really good with patients.....and that he thought very highly of me and expected great things. Those were all very nice things to hear, especially from someone who I really looked up to as being a great doctor, surgeon, and preceptor. I found out my written exam grade (the ridiculous SGU written exam which was more like an internal medicine exam than a surgery exam). I received an A, which really makes me think they curved the grades. I won't get my final surgery grade for a few weeks, but I'm hoping that I get an A overall.

Well, I start internal medicine on monday. This is where the real medicine is :) At least now I will have more of an idea as to all the things I don't know, or can't recall/remember from the first 2 years of medical school! This weekend I am just chilling out and relaxing. I may do something fun, but then again I may not. And having the choice is great!!! Everyone have a great night. I will fill you all in on my first day on Monday! :)