my monthly update...
this is really sad. i can't believe my blogs are down to one per month!! but not to waste time or space, let's catch up:
SCHOOL
- just finished internal medicine I, it was okay. long hours...some days i'd be there from 6:45am til 1-2am being on call, and back again at 6:45am the next day. plus working at least 1-2 full weekend days for most of the month. at least i don't have it as bad as the 1st year residents who are required to work 30h shifts (6am til 1pm the next day) every 4th day. sooooo happy i'm not a med student so i'll never have to do that! i did learn a good amount, despite feeling dumb just about every other hour...
- interesting anecdotes: had a homeless pt that i kinda connected with and really wanted to help her out and believe in all her "medical problems" that she insisted she had (everyone else thought she was a psycho)...i was pretty much her only advocate, and then she ruined all the naivity and trust from a newbie like me after being caught smoking cocaine in her own hospital room by a nurse!! she was kicked out of the hospital and out on the streets in less than 1 hour. our attending MD wanted her arrested!
- i got kicked out of a room by a 300 lb patient with heart failure...and took it with grace. =) she screamed, "stop asking me the same questions everybody else asks! i already answered it all--get it from them! and get out now!" interestingly enuf, i had no hard feelings, and actually left with a smile on my face 'cuz that means i had an excuse to not finish my exam and get home early (i know i'm a slacker...)
- despite long hours, feeling dumb, and being bored half the time (we spend 2-3h each morn talking about our patients...), the best thing about this rotation is the free daily lunches! we get catered and get a variety of foods like gourmet wraps/sandwiches, salads, pasta, chili and rice, chicken and salsa, lasagna, pita and chicken, huge cookies, etc...it's so bad for my diet, but so good for my empty wallet! i swear, i'm surprised i haven't gained 20# from all this eating. it even got to the point where the sight of sandwiches/wraps and even cookies (yes, spoken from cookiemonster) kinda grossed me out!! WAYYY to much! sad thing is...many times an entire tray of food (enuf to serve 20-30ppl) is left untouched, and the custodial staff just throws it away. what waste!
- my 4th rotation started today, and it's internal medicine II--a continuation of the last one, but this month i work mainly one-on-one with PA-Cs, and only MDs at night when i'm on-call. so i get a first-hand experience of what a PA does in internal med. the hours are much much better--8am til 5:30pm on normal days, and 8am-midnight on call nights (2x/week). i was speechless today when my PA-C told me to go home at 5:30pm...i was like, "what? are you kidding? out this early??" hehe...=P now i have to spend the extra time at home studying and working out all the yummy food (and not blogging, arg!)
- i got props from my PA-C today--i suggested putting in a nasogastric (NG) tube for a aspirating patient, and she's like, that's a great idea! the MD agreed, and i got to put in the tube (basically shove a tube into a nostril down the throat to the stomach to "feed" medication to pts who cannot swallow, quite uncomfy). my 2nd successful NG placement this year, yay!
BADMINTON
- it's tournament season!! yayaya!! after a summer of downtime, it's time to dust off racket...actually, i broke my racket literally in half just hitting a clear, and my cousin from Taiwan got me a new racket as well as new shoes! i'm so excited! early b-day gift! i'm very very proud of my broken racket as it takes me a year just to pop the strings....and to break a racket is a huge accomplishment on my part! too bad it was a gift from my old mixed partner...but i'll keep it for remembrance!
- so the next two wknds i'll be competing in NYC then in Boston, then a few weeks later i'll compete in Philly. it'll be great--getting better partners now too!
- radu and i agreed long time ago not to be mixed partners, as we both agree its deleterious to our relationship. =P some ppl are surprised, but i'm sooo thankful for it. we haven't done very well at practice playing together, but then again, we play against men's doubles who are both much stronger than me, and he has to do double-coverage. plus, i think he's too much of a finesse player and it drives me mad!! i'm like, "SMASH SMASH SMASH" and he just "drroooopppss...." and i'm left at the net waiting, and waiting...and setting him up to smash...only to see a drop, and waiting...and waiting...arg arg arg!! he gets all pissed too 'cuz he knows we have the ability to beat 2 guys, but somehow we just don't get it together. plus, i get annoyed when he tries to "coach" me with obvious tips like, "don't lift half-court!" or "they always hit to your backhand and you can't get it." oh well, it's still great to play!
PERSONAL
- besides radu/badm above, we are good. we actually got to the point of absolute boredom...do any of you have suggestions for fun things to do on a rainy day? or any day? new haven is getting really really dull..we've done just about every walking tour around here, eating at many of the restaurants, played stupid games, watched tons of tv/dvds, talked, etc. we were gonna drive to new hampshire this past wknd for the foilage, but the stupid storm detered us so we will postpone it. at least the next few wknds will be filled with badm tournaments--always fun!
- i wish our PA class had more socials during this time. i actually miss my classmates--we are on diff rotation schedules and rarely get to see each other. =(
- as for my floormates (remember i'm back in the dorms), i plan to maybe throw a birthday brunch/bday party kinda thing to kinda bring ppl together on my floor. it should be fun--lotsa of them were on my floor last year too! oh, one guy just dropped my room and gave me a BBQ pork bun from NYC chinatown--how nice!
- i think i get to see my Cali east-coast gfs in a month in philly! yay! =)
arg, i should stop blogging 'cuz it's 9:20pm, i still have to read on HIT (heparin-induced thrombycytopenia) to prepare for a presentation tomorrow 'cuz i couldn't explain what it was today on rotation, and do a few clinical cases, and work on my thesis! and i have to workout too! not enough hours in a day!!! boohoooooo =P
SCHOOL
- just finished internal medicine I, it was okay. long hours...some days i'd be there from 6:45am til 1-2am being on call, and back again at 6:45am the next day. plus working at least 1-2 full weekend days for most of the month. at least i don't have it as bad as the 1st year residents who are required to work 30h shifts (6am til 1pm the next day) every 4th day. sooooo happy i'm not a med student so i'll never have to do that! i did learn a good amount, despite feeling dumb just about every other hour...
- interesting anecdotes: had a homeless pt that i kinda connected with and really wanted to help her out and believe in all her "medical problems" that she insisted she had (everyone else thought she was a psycho)...i was pretty much her only advocate, and then she ruined all the naivity and trust from a newbie like me after being caught smoking cocaine in her own hospital room by a nurse!! she was kicked out of the hospital and out on the streets in less than 1 hour. our attending MD wanted her arrested!
- i got kicked out of a room by a 300 lb patient with heart failure...and took it with grace. =) she screamed, "stop asking me the same questions everybody else asks! i already answered it all--get it from them! and get out now!" interestingly enuf, i had no hard feelings, and actually left with a smile on my face 'cuz that means i had an excuse to not finish my exam and get home early (i know i'm a slacker...)
- despite long hours, feeling dumb, and being bored half the time (we spend 2-3h each morn talking about our patients...), the best thing about this rotation is the free daily lunches! we get catered and get a variety of foods like gourmet wraps/sandwiches, salads, pasta, chili and rice, chicken and salsa, lasagna, pita and chicken, huge cookies, etc...it's so bad for my diet, but so good for my empty wallet! i swear, i'm surprised i haven't gained 20# from all this eating. it even got to the point where the sight of sandwiches/wraps and even cookies (yes, spoken from cookiemonster) kinda grossed me out!! WAYYY to much! sad thing is...many times an entire tray of food (enuf to serve 20-30ppl) is left untouched, and the custodial staff just throws it away. what waste!
- my 4th rotation started today, and it's internal medicine II--a continuation of the last one, but this month i work mainly one-on-one with PA-Cs, and only MDs at night when i'm on-call. so i get a first-hand experience of what a PA does in internal med. the hours are much much better--8am til 5:30pm on normal days, and 8am-midnight on call nights (2x/week). i was speechless today when my PA-C told me to go home at 5:30pm...i was like, "what? are you kidding? out this early??" hehe...=P now i have to spend the extra time at home studying and working out all the yummy food (and not blogging, arg!)
- i got props from my PA-C today--i suggested putting in a nasogastric (NG) tube for a aspirating patient, and she's like, that's a great idea! the MD agreed, and i got to put in the tube (basically shove a tube into a nostril down the throat to the stomach to "feed" medication to pts who cannot swallow, quite uncomfy). my 2nd successful NG placement this year, yay!
BADMINTON
- it's tournament season!! yayaya!! after a summer of downtime, it's time to dust off racket...actually, i broke my racket literally in half just hitting a clear, and my cousin from Taiwan got me a new racket as well as new shoes! i'm so excited! early b-day gift! i'm very very proud of my broken racket as it takes me a year just to pop the strings....and to break a racket is a huge accomplishment on my part! too bad it was a gift from my old mixed partner...but i'll keep it for remembrance!
- so the next two wknds i'll be competing in NYC then in Boston, then a few weeks later i'll compete in Philly. it'll be great--getting better partners now too!
- radu and i agreed long time ago not to be mixed partners, as we both agree its deleterious to our relationship. =P some ppl are surprised, but i'm sooo thankful for it. we haven't done very well at practice playing together, but then again, we play against men's doubles who are both much stronger than me, and he has to do double-coverage. plus, i think he's too much of a finesse player and it drives me mad!! i'm like, "SMASH SMASH SMASH" and he just "drroooopppss...." and i'm left at the net waiting, and waiting...and setting him up to smash...only to see a drop, and waiting...and waiting...arg arg arg!! he gets all pissed too 'cuz he knows we have the ability to beat 2 guys, but somehow we just don't get it together. plus, i get annoyed when he tries to "coach" me with obvious tips like, "don't lift half-court!" or "they always hit to your backhand and you can't get it." oh well, it's still great to play!
PERSONAL
- besides radu/badm above, we are good. we actually got to the point of absolute boredom...do any of you have suggestions for fun things to do on a rainy day? or any day? new haven is getting really really dull..we've done just about every walking tour around here, eating at many of the restaurants, played stupid games, watched tons of tv/dvds, talked, etc. we were gonna drive to new hampshire this past wknd for the foilage, but the stupid storm detered us so we will postpone it. at least the next few wknds will be filled with badm tournaments--always fun!
- i wish our PA class had more socials during this time. i actually miss my classmates--we are on diff rotation schedules and rarely get to see each other. =(
- as for my floormates (remember i'm back in the dorms), i plan to maybe throw a birthday brunch/bday party kinda thing to kinda bring ppl together on my floor. it should be fun--lotsa of them were on my floor last year too! oh, one guy just dropped my room and gave me a BBQ pork bun from NYC chinatown--how nice!
- i think i get to see my Cali east-coast gfs in a month in philly! yay! =)
arg, i should stop blogging 'cuz it's 9:20pm, i still have to read on HIT (heparin-induced thrombycytopenia) to prepare for a presentation tomorrow 'cuz i couldn't explain what it was today on rotation, and do a few clinical cases, and work on my thesis! and i have to workout too! not enough hours in a day!!! boohoooooo =P
posted by CookieMonster28 at 8:30 PM
<< Home