Playing Hookie

Although not entirely my fault, as I didn't receive alternate plans until after I left.  Full disclosure below:

I came in for morning clinic, only to see no one was there and only there nurses were out front.  So I asked them if we had clinic, in which they told me it has been cancelled.  I contacted Osama who told me that Endocrine clinic was taking the extra students, although no one told me this yesterday.  Also, there was mention of a page, although I never received it.

So maybe I should have done the right thing and gone, but in reality, no one told me to do it.  And by that point, I had mentally decided to go home.  I had gone too far.

I got to spend time at home this last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I also enjoyed going to Han's wedding, which almost killed us.  We took Hwy 41 to Yosemite from Fresno and got caught in a snow flurry at night.  We drove with almost no visibility and the car drifting around turns.  At one point, we hit an ice patch and I had no control over the car.  In other parts, the tires had no connection to the ground and the only thing slowing us down was the snow piling up in the front tires of the car.  And if we hadn't stopped for gas on the way, we might have run out on the way too.

In the end, we made it and the place was gorgeous.  I'm glad we survived to see it.

At home, we made it to a dinner thrown by the hospital for my father.  It was a great event and we all got a chance to see my father speak in front of the crowd.  Dancing after was appreciated.  We also made it home for Eid and spent time with both of our families. which was a nice send-off before heading back to Bako.

Two more weeks of clinic and then it's back to the wards.  Should be another mixed bag I think.

As a final comment, I finally popped the Jetta trunk open and found the reason why the trunk no longer opens.  Thanks to a broken plastic lever, I have to go to back and manually open it each time.  I scoured the internet for a new part, and then stumbled upon a much better fix.

Anyways, if any other Jetta owners need a more permanent fix, here you go:

http://jettatrunk.com/

Medicine, the First Round

I'm finally wrapping up my first medicine rotation at KMC.  We are in our last week and I think I've finally gotten a grasp of what is going on.  In the beginning, it was a cluster of confusion and ineptitude, but now I think I'm starting to get it.  I have an interesting team, but it has been good so far.  My chief is good for the most part, but gets easily frazzled and tends to dump her frustrations on the med students.  I've learned to grow a tough skin, so it doesn't get to me, but it does bother me when I know the source of the bitterness did not actually originate with my actions.  Thankfully, I know both other med students from school, so working with them has been pretty reasonable.  The intern is a cool cat, who is helpful wherever he can be and doesn't make unreasonable requests of the students.  The other intern is kind of lazy, but still pretty nice for the most part.  She gets her work done, but tends to take time off whenever she can.  Based on her personal situation (rich husband, newborn at home), I suppose I can understand her reasoning.

So as far as frazzled moments, we tend to have about one a day.  Usually it involves being scolded for not being active in something, although we've never been asked to before.  For instance, we were recently told we need to present more during rounds, which is odd since we are usually silenced when the chief talks about patients.  One can assume that she was told by the attendings to let the students present more, and her way of letting us know this, was to blame us for it.  There was also the other time where I stood around playing errand boy for 5 hours while we tried to put in a femoral CVC, which was found by another resident within 10 minutes because he decided to use the ultrasound to actually improve his chances.  If we had followed protocol, we would not have been standing there for so long.  We went through 3 kits, tons of anti-septic, gloves, and gowns.  I feel bad for the patient who had to sit there the whole time.  I also resent being told about sterile fields while those in it continued to break it over and over.

So that's about it after three weeks.  I'm looking forward to clinic, although many people say it is hell.  We'll have to see about that, but in my experience, I appreciate the time and pace of outpatient work.

I also was around for my first Code Blue today.  We followed the overhead page into the ICU.  There we saw the code team taking care of the patient.  We stood around for a bit, but figured they wouldn't need compression help, so headed back.  In reality, we were probably too scared to jump in.  Also, the patient was under airborne precautions (and I don't want TB), so I figured staying out of the isolation room was better for me.  It was an interesting blend of organization and chaos.

Ready to Get Going

It's been about two months since my FM rotation and I'm ready to start going again.  The wife and I move down to Bakersfield this weekend with the help of the in-laws.  Should be a fun time.  I can only hope it's drop from 102F that it was when we went down last time.  We picked up a new apartment due to the DEFCON 1 situation I had with the last place.

It wasn't until I was setting up the utilities that I found out the previous place only had a 3Mbps DSL connection, which is unacceptable in my books.  So I had to do some major scrambling to find a place in a decent area with an opening before Sept. 26th (my first day).  In the end, I pulled it off.  The big caveat is that I have not seen the place, although we have a month-to-month lease, so we can get out if we need to.  We also have our eyes set on another complex down there.

I'm feel like I'm get rusty over here, so it will be good to get back in the hospital.  It's been too long since I've been talked down to, felt to be stupid, or generally mishandled by someone and I want that experience back.  So I'll jump back in there with both feet and hope someone doesn't consume me whole.

Another bright note will be finally moving out on my own post-wedding.  Living with one's parents, although economically sound, can wreak havoc on one's self of independence and self-worth.  Although the food may have evened it all out.  Can't beat mom's home cooking.  Hell, I remember the craving for daal and roti whenever I would come back from the island, so it's pretty sweet to have it on a weekly basis.  Realistically, you could put any fast food place on that list too.

Alright, time to wind down.  Tomorrow we pick up the moving truck and start packing.  Wish me luck!

Five Weeks In

I'm in my last week of Family Medicine and I'm ready to be done.  I've enjoyed my time working with the residents and attendings.  I end up doing a fair amount of menial work, like rounding up patients, looking up labs, or wasting an hour on hold with the ultrasound department wit ha phone that has no speaker, so I have to hold it to my ear the entire time, but at least I'm appreciated.

I have not enjoyed working with the front office staff.  It's always fun to wake up in the morning and go to the hospital, so you can be belittled by people who do not have the mental capacity to handle what you do.  My having no recourse is one of the main reasons they do it; I can't complain to an attending or resident that the front staff is "being mean to me", so I suck it up.  I guess because they can't talk back to the attendings, they stick to taking it out on the med students.  That's cool, in a couple of years, they'll be stuck doing what they do, and I'll be moving on and up.

One of my major assets is being able to work with the technology in the hospital.  Like my brother said, you can be smart as hell, but attendings love the med student who can fix their computer.  I've seen it first-hand.  I've fallen in favor of at least two attendings for fixing their computer.  I've also seen a resident who gave me a hard time, switch it up quickly after I fixed his printer.  Being a nerd has its perks.

Although it's been a good experience.  I have not learned too much medicine, but I have learned how to function in a hospital and also, more important, how to deal with difficult people.  Mainly, the disingenuous kind who smile to all the doctors, but will shit on you not because they have to, but because they can.  Life lessons learned at no cost.

I'll looking forward to being back in California to enjoy time with the wife and family.  My little niece keeps getting bigger in every picture or video I see.  I didn't know six weeks could change a kid so quickly.

As one rotation comes to an end, I'm also learning that I'll need to find a specialty.  Family medicine requires one to know a lot about a lot of things.  I would prefer to know the details of just one organ or body system.  More power to the family doc, but I don't think it's in the cards for me.

My First Month

I've done about four weeks of clinicals and I'm finally starting to figure out the system.  Mainly, I look for unique and interesting scenerios to get out of the hospital early.  I'm usually successful, so long as I'm not caught to work up a last minute patient. 

Other than that, I've been learning a lot.

Check the Door Lock

Today I had an eventful bathroom experience.  I used the outside combination door lock to get into the staff restroom, only to forget to turn the inside lock.  And then it happened; a fellow student walked in on me.  I had no time to react and I think I uttered something along the lines of "Oh, dear goodness" before she quickly shut the door and apologized.  To add insult to injury, I left the bathroom in such a panic that I'm pretty sure I forgot to flush on the way out.  To avoid super awkwardness, I was going to make a joke of it when I saw her, but she was in the break room with a lot of people, so I avoided drawing more attention then needed.  And in the end, we ended up passing each other in halls and exchanging awkward glances.

It's going to be a long two weeks.

Also, it's good to have some computer skills.  I've made it in good with the attendings and residents by fixing their non-functional printers.  I should also thank HP too, I guess. 

What Did I Do?

I understand nurses have a job to do and most likely, I probably get in the way, but do nurses really have to be so snappy all the time?  Honestly, the attitude gets old.  None of the residents or attendings disrespect them, yet they feel the need to dump on medical students for asking questions or a favor.  For example, we're going to ask you to let us into the supply closet.  We don't have a key.  If we did, we'd do it ourselves.  But we don't, so when we ask nicely, please don't give us a look each time a swear it's a huge dilemma to let us borrow the IR key.  If we ask a question, don't give us all the attitude, just explain to us the situation like an adult.  We don't know all the hospital policy, so please take 30 seconds out of your precious time and let us know.

Luckily, my time in the hospital is starting to wind down.  Next week, we get to start working in the clinic, which means shorter hours although possibly a busier workload.  At this point, I'll take the extra hour of sleep in the morning.  I don't quite understand how they expect us to function properly after 15-hour days (from waking up to arriving home) and actually get some studying done when we get back.  All I'm thinking about is dinner, a little StarCraft or Hulu Plus, and getting ready for bed.  Third year is a time suck.

Third Year

Finally get back into the swing of things.  I've been sitting on the sidelines since December, so it feels good to back in it.  The only knock would be the hours.  Gone are my midday naps.  My sleeping in until mid-afternoon and getting home with enough time to go to the gym, enjoy dinner, and waste time watching professional level StarCraft II games online. 

I'll update more in the coming days...