I stink. I really do. People keep telling me that I'm the only one who can smell it, but I'm sure they've caught a whiff of it too. I spent the night in the hospital and haven't had a shower ... well, in a while. I've been here 29.75 hours, so it's been at least longer than that.
Why am I sitting here blogging when I stink? I'm waiting on a surgeon to call me back to talk about a patient he's covering. This one in particular is notorious for eating residents for breakfast, but at this point, I am too tired to care. If he doesn't call back soon, then I will just check it out to the night float. I need a shower, a meal, and a nap.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Feed me!
It's 11:55, and it's almost time for our daily noon conference. It's also almost time for the free lunch they use to get us to come to noon conference. I am starving! Yesterday I could barely eat, and today I am ravenous. It puts me in the mood to go home and use my double oven again! I love the new house.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Baby fever!
Two of our good friends are coming to visit this weekend. We get to babysit their 4 1/2 month old little guy for the evening while they attend a wedding. I can't wait!! I'm so excited. I get to take care of sick little guys all day at work, so it'll be fun to play with a healthy one.
No, I don't have baby fever of my own yet, just puppy fever.
No, I don't have baby fever of my own yet, just puppy fever.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Change of heart
I need a better attitude; I know this. I am getting really tired of being an intern. An intern is (rightfully so) the nurse's first contact when anything goes amiss (or potentially amiss) with a patient. High blood pressure? Call the intern. Mom wants an update at 2 AM? Call the intern. Need an order for diaper cream? Call the intern. Somebody else messed up the discharge papers and the patient is going home? You guessed it ... call the intern. The med students look to us with all sorts of probing questions such as, "What are the 50 top causes of a low hemoglobin? Can we discuss them in then 10 minutes before rounds since you must know all of them by heart?" (They mean well; they just forget that we're only 2 years ahead of them and still need to look things up too!) Medical Records loves us when we get behind on our dictations or have 50 charts with orders that need to be signed, so occasionally we have to get lovely reminder emails to take a trip to their office.
Being an intern isn't ALL bad. There are some really great things about it, but it still is physically and mentally exhausting in a completely different way from medical school. When I was in med school, I studied subjects regardless of whether I was interested in them because my grade depended on it. Now it's for my own personal edification (and eventually the care of my patients) that I need to read and learn how to be a good doctor.
I don't like the attitude that I have seen develop in me. I'm tired of being the one who gets called for things, knows what to do, and still has to check in with someone. I am tired of having to deal with the nit-picky details of things that aren't necessarily my fault but still need to be taken care of. I've been back on service for 2 weeks, and the floor I'm on is run slightly differently from previous floors, so it can be frustrating at times trying to figure out a new system this far into my year. I've pretty much felt physically tired for the last 2 weeks adjusting to being back on call. I recognize that I need to stop making that internal groan every time my pager goes off and when I get a page (even if it's unnecessary at 3 AM), I need to smile and thank the person who paged me.
My team is great and I love working with them, so that has made this month a little better than I expected. I have this Saturday off, and our new dining room furniture and couches are supposed to arrive! I can't wait. We're going to hang up our framed pictures, something that I know will make the house feel more like a home. We may even make a run to one of the best stores ever, Home Depot, for ceiling fans and chicken wire (which we have to put at the bottom of the fence before Sebastian gets here). Just two more days of waking up early before I can sleep in past six!! :)
Being an intern isn't ALL bad. There are some really great things about it, but it still is physically and mentally exhausting in a completely different way from medical school. When I was in med school, I studied subjects regardless of whether I was interested in them because my grade depended on it. Now it's for my own personal edification (and eventually the care of my patients) that I need to read and learn how to be a good doctor.
I don't like the attitude that I have seen develop in me. I'm tired of being the one who gets called for things, knows what to do, and still has to check in with someone. I am tired of having to deal with the nit-picky details of things that aren't necessarily my fault but still need to be taken care of. I've been back on service for 2 weeks, and the floor I'm on is run slightly differently from previous floors, so it can be frustrating at times trying to figure out a new system this far into my year. I've pretty much felt physically tired for the last 2 weeks adjusting to being back on call. I recognize that I need to stop making that internal groan every time my pager goes off and when I get a page (even if it's unnecessary at 3 AM), I need to smile and thank the person who paged me.
My team is great and I love working with them, so that has made this month a little better than I expected. I have this Saturday off, and our new dining room furniture and couches are supposed to arrive! I can't wait. We're going to hang up our framed pictures, something that I know will make the house feel more like a home. We may even make a run to one of the best stores ever, Home Depot, for ceiling fans and chicken wire (which we have to put at the bottom of the fence before Sebastian gets here). Just two more days of waking up early before I can sleep in past six!! :)
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
I forgot
I haven't taken call in almost 2 months. I forgot how tired it makes me. I'm sitting up again waiting on a chest x-ray (or CXR) to come back so that I can make a decision on a patient and then go lie down. Of course, as soon as I lie down, it'll be time for me to get up to do an admission, so I don't know what's worse: getting up after a short rest/possible nap or not lying down at all? Questions I ponder at 1 AM ...
The hubby is out of town this week. It's the first time I've slept alone in a house (not an apartment or condo) since I was in college. It's WEIRD!! There's something wrong with our plumbing system right now, so the toilets randomly gurgle, and I can occasionally hear water in the pipes near the laundry room. Those noises don't normally bother me, but they have caught me off guard when I'm expecting silence in the house. I feel relatively safe, but since I haven't done it in so long, I asked the hubby to get me the phone numbers of our pastor and music pastor since they each live 1/2 a mile away from us. I need male back-up in case something happens!
Whoo hoo ... x-ray is finally back. All is well. Think I'll go lie down ... 10 minutes is better than nothing!
The hubby is out of town this week. It's the first time I've slept alone in a house (not an apartment or condo) since I was in college. It's WEIRD!! There's something wrong with our plumbing system right now, so the toilets randomly gurgle, and I can occasionally hear water in the pipes near the laundry room. Those noises don't normally bother me, but they have caught me off guard when I'm expecting silence in the house. I feel relatively safe, but since I haven't done it in so long, I asked the hubby to get me the phone numbers of our pastor and music pastor since they each live 1/2 a mile away from us. I need male back-up in case something happens!
Whoo hoo ... x-ray is finally back. All is well. Think I'll go lie down ... 10 minutes is better than nothing!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
My new love
Isn't he gorgeous?
I think he would definitely be happier on the ground.
Mom's little jailbird
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
We're here!!!
Countless hours, 1 scratched wood floor, 3 gashed pieces of adored mahogany bedroom furniture, 2 non-working toilets, 2 broken electrical outlets, and 1 defective refrigerator later ... WE ARE MOVED IN!!! :) We have no blinds yet (those come Friday), so we have some old curtains hung up over the windows towards the street and towards the neighbor's kitchen. We got a working, non-damaged refrigerator today, and the hubby used his new tools to hang up a pot rack tonight so that our pots we got for our wedding will FINALLY be used on a regular basis. We have internet and cable now (obviously), and while we are only about 1/3 of the way unpacked and our house looks like a tornado hit it, I don't know if I could be happier. I love our house, imperfections and all.
In other news, I had my 3rd migraine in 12 days today. Ugh. I went a year without one, and now 3 in less than 2 weeks? Double ugh. At least I can finally think straight without feeling like a sledgehammer is pounding the right side of my head.
My puppy is 5 weeks old! It should only be about a month or so til we pick him up. That means 1 more month til everything in the house gets chewed to shreds. Yes, I know we are insane for getting the little guy, but I'm just a sucker for canines.
Okay, I know this post is totally incoherent, but I still have a small residual headache and can't think fully straight yet. More to come when the house gets cleaned up and we take pictures!
In other news, I had my 3rd migraine in 12 days today. Ugh. I went a year without one, and now 3 in less than 2 weeks? Double ugh. At least I can finally think straight without feeling like a sledgehammer is pounding the right side of my head.
My puppy is 5 weeks old! It should only be about a month or so til we pick him up. That means 1 more month til everything in the house gets chewed to shreds. Yes, I know we are insane for getting the little guy, but I'm just a sucker for canines.
Okay, I know this post is totally incoherent, but I still have a small residual headache and can't think fully straight yet. More to come when the house gets cleaned up and we take pictures!
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