A couple weeks from being a senior resident!

It has been a long time since I posted, things have been busy.  I guess the big updates include... being advanced to second year, getting through nearly all of first year with essentially flying colors and strong recommendations within my program, passing COMLEX Step 3 with a better score than Steps 1 and 2, and making a few new friendships.  Made it also through my first year of marriage, and couldn't be happier.  I guess I don't know what else to say - I've heard from some people that some of my patients have been recommending me, or at least saying good things about me to other people in the community, which is about as unbiased an opinion as you can get.  

What's on the horizon...I get to be a senior resident, and I'm on the internal medicine service first, so I'm trying to mentally prepare for the task of being the first to manage the completely green interns.  The two I am with I feel optimistic about, but we will see what skills, expectations, and experiences they come in with and go from there.  I've got a bunch of handouts and things to talk about planned, without overloading them I'm hoping, so should be interesting.  I am looking forward to my vacation in September, which will be a more official 1 year wedding anniversary celebration, since there aren't any good times in the next couple weeks to celebrate...  

Anyhow, I am still alive, I'm feeling more confident in my skills and knowledge, and looking forward to as well as feeling anxious about the coming year.  Soon I'll have my DEA number assigned and have more autonomy, too!  Speaking of which...I need to start the paperwork for that...

Night Float...

Well, this is my second week on Night Float - 5:30pm to 7:30am.  The roughest thing isn't so much medicine itself, but rather only having 2 hours of time where you are awake at home.  I get home around 8am, sleep until 3pm if I want to get 7 hours, shower, put some kind of food together for "lunch," prepare a sandwich and grab some fruit for the night shift, and...well, there's not really much time for anything else.  Do some chores, maybe watch one episode of something.  

The nights themselves, for me anyhow, have been pretty relaxed.  It is rather nice to not have a senior staring over your shoulder, checking to make sure you've done your work the way you are supposed to, etc.  The extra responsibility isn't too much to shoulder, as I've been pretty self-sufficient for a while.  Since it's pretty much living at the hospital for 14 hours, it's a mix of work and play.  I've been going through American Board of Family Medicine modules (well, admittedly just one because it requires a lot of focus, but hey, that one I did is complete!), reading guidelines (management of supratherapeutic INR, hospital-acquired and community acquired pneumonia, definitions of leukocytosis, to name a few), and updating the patient list and of course admitting patients as I get pages, which hasn't been particularly frequent.  I also have practice board questions to go through.  

As for the play, well, I have my computer and my external hard drive, so possibilities abound.  Lately the other night resident (who is on a different service) and I have started watching Breaking Bad.  I think we can justify it because it gives us an inside perspective on all the meth abusers we see here, plus on giving patients bad news about cancer or medical conditions, and just seeing more and more of the drug abuser and patient perspective.  Plus it's good drama.  I can't quite justify playing Doom 3 the same way...

Only three more night shifts and then I get to go on vacation!  It is sorely needed.  Sometimes I feel less motivated, I need more time to do my own thing.  I am studying but it's hard to do that when you're trapped in one place.  Cabin fever a bit, I guess.  Lots of fun planned, mostly with friends and family.  Simply being in Davis will be a relief, where there are many other young educated people, enthusiastic about education and life, and where you feel comfortable walking around town to get dinner at 8:30pm and don't feel like you need to speed walk to your car.  Plus boba and fresh sushi!