Medicine - This month . . .

Today is the first of the month. It's the point when somewhere in the hospital there is a bell that DING!s and all the residents, interns, attendings, and even students, all stand up from their chairs, move one spot over, and sit back down for another round of the hospital's version of speed dating.

Since we've now been on this rotation for a month, I'd like to take a chance to reflect. Over the last month I've experienced -

getting lost trying to find the cafeteria, getting locked between two swipe-only doors, and getting trapped trying to exit the building (no ... damn ... exits!!!).

nearly fainting when my super nice actually-gave-us-the-leture-on-humanism attending asked me again what the symptoms of uremia are (we had gone through them the day before, and bless his soul, I can't remember what the I and U of AEIOU stand for).

having my pager go off without knowing it and needing a nurse to gently tell me that that sound is actually coming from my pocket (me: "but they said they wouldn't be paging me!" nurse: "oh sweetie, they lied to you.")

walking into a pts room and not once thinking the pt would be annoyed with my presence.

not being able to sleep because I wasn't sure whether my resident really wanted me in an hour early the next day or if she was being sarcastic. (She was.)

going from following 1 pt to following 2.

seeing a classmate I've never said two words to and being so excited to see a familiar face that we got into a 10 minute conversation about how our respective rotations were going.

feeling that my intern was being a bit possessive when referring to me as his medical student.

finding that I was never eager to leave the hospital and go home after a long day, actually meaning it when asking my residents what else I could do and not using code for "please let me go home!" . . . and being surprised about this.

noticing that my angry psych pt is actually more sarcastic then angry, and that she's started to say "thank you" when I'm done pre-rounding on her every morning.

going from following 2 pts to following 3.

getting called 18 yrs old by a nurse who wasn't kidding.

getting called "that 4 yr old med student" by a pt's daughter, who was.

finally feeling comfortable taking care of the handful of patients that are mine, all mine! and feeling wronged when my resident changed the dosage of a beta blocker without telling me.

not nearly crapping myself on rounds and actually answering questions and getting the compliment from my attending "sorry to keep directing these questions towards you, but you seem to be on a roll."

deciding from the above that I would go into medicine, open a private practice with that attending, and babysit her children on weekends because I am that excited about this rotation.

joking to my angry/sarcastic psych pt that when she gets that transfer, she's going to miss waking up to me shining my pen light in her eyes every morning.

feeling pride that I'm not only being useful to my residents, but also lightening their work load and helping them get out a few hours earlier.

actually thinking that maybe they could use that time to hang out with me and tell me what its like to be a resident. (But not daring to suggest it!)

having an elderly pt report to me that she's only on ambien and listening to her insist for an hour that she's the healthiest woman in her nursing home and everyone envies her health, only to go out to her chart and find that she's actually on 21 medications, has severe AS and is in CHF.

going through pre-test with my resident and making her depressed because she wasn't getting the questions right either. then my intern insisting he try the same questions, with the same result.

wishing that my intern would just tell me how he takes his coffee instead of insisting he can't scut me because he looks so stressed out and tired that I want to take care of him.

not thinking that last line was possessive at all.

getting so excited to get the news that my two psych pts (in PsychBuilding) had received transfers that I ran into their rooms and told them myself. then, saying good-bye to each of them on the same day, and telling them that I'd better not see them again!

seeing a pt in the ER whose chest pain is obviously musculoskeletal (it hurt when he pressed on it) but insisting we admit him because he reminded me of my father and though, like my father, he only has 1 or 2 risk factors for MI and is in near perfect health, I was afraid that he could clot any day now.

being able to tell that pt and his wife that we ruled out every possible serious cause of his chest pain and that he could rest easy now (but don't forget to follow up with your doctor!) ... though really I'm the one who can rest easy.

going from following 3 pts to following 4.

finding out that my team had spent the morning meeting to evaluate me . . . and still working my ass off for rounds even though they were done grading me.

hanging around the last day of the month with my team and finding every excuse not to leave even though the work was done and we had put in 12 hours. Feeling that my resident actually considers me a friend and that she meant it when she said I can call her anytime. Knowing she meant it when she said I'd better not like my next resident more than her.


Well ok I didn't know I had that much sap in me, but there it is.