roughly 6 more weeks of intern year! i can't believe time has gone this fast.
i start trauma in 12 days. aak!
today i was post call and have been blissfully sleeping the afternoon away. i need to do some reading though.
also, H and i are getting a house! i'm quite excited...it's less than 5 minutes from the hospital and i can't wait! i have tomato and hot pepper and bell pepper seedlings that i'm hoping to put in the ground once we move...
so that's it for my monthly post...hahaha...
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Sunday, April 08, 2012
le sigh
hey everyone. i feel like i've been a bad blogger lately, i don't ever post anymore. it's not that i'm having a lack of things to post, i just feel like i don't have the time. i'd rather be sleeping or eating or attempting to read, ha.
life is good. i'm logging tons of cases and learning a lot. a lot of attendings have commented on my surgical skills and that makes me feel good. i didn't do as well as i would have liked on ABSITE, so alas. i've revamped my study techniques and i'll just do better next year. no harm done yet.
i was irritated earlier today because my attending took forever to come round at the hospital, but oh well. he thought i was on call today, but that was 100% wrong. so i caught up on all my pending paperwork, organized the list, and did a little bit of online shopping! hee hee...so i guess i got screwed from a time perspective, but hopefully the dresses and the swimsuit i ordered fit me well! the three hour work morning i envisioned ended up being a 6 hour morning, so irritating. and then H made me lunch, i was able to finally take a shower (i have a habit of just going to work "as is" on the weekends, and then adding to that the fact i wear my scrubs 2-3 days in a row, i guess i'm a bit disgusting, but not as disgusting as a boy), and now i've caught up on my internet fun and have decided to blog!
the other day i was assisting on a perirectal abscess case, and we had finished doing the fistulotomy, and the patient then took that moment to have a bowel movement to end all bowel movements...of course we're all up in the butthole region, and then this geyser of poo comes exploding out. my attending got the brunt of it on his chest and arms, so he descrubbed and rescrubbed in. i, however, am significantly shorter, and somehow the poo went lateral and pegged me square in the face (and chest and arms). luckily i was wearing a face shield but i had to spend the rest of the case staring at the shit stuck on my face shield hoping and praying it wasn't going to slide down and drip onto exposed skin and/or scrubs. ha. luckily, it stayed put, i had no actual skin/hair/clothes contact with the poo. word got around so fast in the OR that i got sprayed...but the funniest part was the attending is a very professional sort of guy, someone that you can't just bust into laughing around, so i was trying to hold it together so hard. i think i ended up muttering "so that was dramatic", but omg on the inside i wanted to break it down and hoot and holler! and thank goodness for face shields.
so far i've logged 206 cases. i'm such a case whore...i want to have the MOST! wahoo! i even enjoy being a glorified med student...you learn so much about technique watching other people operate.
ok i think i'm going to nap now. i needs it!
life is good. i'm logging tons of cases and learning a lot. a lot of attendings have commented on my surgical skills and that makes me feel good. i didn't do as well as i would have liked on ABSITE, so alas. i've revamped my study techniques and i'll just do better next year. no harm done yet.
i was irritated earlier today because my attending took forever to come round at the hospital, but oh well. he thought i was on call today, but that was 100% wrong. so i caught up on all my pending paperwork, organized the list, and did a little bit of online shopping! hee hee...so i guess i got screwed from a time perspective, but hopefully the dresses and the swimsuit i ordered fit me well! the three hour work morning i envisioned ended up being a 6 hour morning, so irritating. and then H made me lunch, i was able to finally take a shower (i have a habit of just going to work "as is" on the weekends, and then adding to that the fact i wear my scrubs 2-3 days in a row, i guess i'm a bit disgusting, but not as disgusting as a boy), and now i've caught up on my internet fun and have decided to blog!
the other day i was assisting on a perirectal abscess case, and we had finished doing the fistulotomy, and the patient then took that moment to have a bowel movement to end all bowel movements...of course we're all up in the butthole region, and then this geyser of poo comes exploding out. my attending got the brunt of it on his chest and arms, so he descrubbed and rescrubbed in. i, however, am significantly shorter, and somehow the poo went lateral and pegged me square in the face (and chest and arms). luckily i was wearing a face shield but i had to spend the rest of the case staring at the shit stuck on my face shield hoping and praying it wasn't going to slide down and drip onto exposed skin and/or scrubs. ha. luckily, it stayed put, i had no actual skin/hair/clothes contact with the poo. word got around so fast in the OR that i got sprayed...but the funniest part was the attending is a very professional sort of guy, someone that you can't just bust into laughing around, so i was trying to hold it together so hard. i think i ended up muttering "so that was dramatic", but omg on the inside i wanted to break it down and hoot and holler! and thank goodness for face shields.
so far i've logged 206 cases. i'm such a case whore...i want to have the MOST! wahoo! i even enjoy being a glorified med student...you learn so much about technique watching other people operate.
ok i think i'm going to nap now. i needs it!
Categories:
intern year
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
don't hate me!
ok, an update. i find that it's getting harder to find time to blog, but i digress...
ABSITE was alright, i hope i got above 30th percentile...that's what my program uses as their cutoff for remediation, basically a "pass/fail" measure. we'll see...scores should be back by the end of the month. the past 2 weekends have thus been quite celebratory in nature, and i'm doing a self imposed liver detox now to make up for all my bad behavior, ha!
my hospital has this wellness campaign right now and we all got fitbits! they're fancy pedometers, and they have that wii technology in them so they can tell if you're walking, running, jumping, going up stairs, etc. i'm interested to see how much i can walk around. tonight i'm on ED call, so we'll see! the website lets you add your food eaten and all so you can do calorie counts, but i predict i'll be too lazy to input that stuff. i'm more interested in the mileage, etc.
so as to my goal of reading all of greenfield's...1 chapter down! hahaha!
i presented my first M&M last week. gallstone pancreatitis...patient had a lap chole but then ended up with a retained stone about 3 months postop. i was so nervous before the talk! we had just switched to a different presentation style, 5 slides, 1 article. i said my piece, presented my article, and then BAM, all the various attendings in the hall started talking about their views and experiences and blah blah blah...basically, my presentation and article had inspired a lot of talk and that is viewed as EXCELLENT JOB. even some of my fellow residents chimed in! yes! also, i'm so happy that there was a podium i could hide behind...my hands were shaking really bad. but now that i'm done with my first one, and know the routine, the next ones shouldn't be bad at all. and then some of my upper levels told me i did a good job afterwards...now THAT makes me happy. and then throughout the day some attendings STILL kept telling me their tidbits. it was like i had entered into some "secret club" or something. like i was telling H, that day was a great "professional" day for me...and we celebrated by eating some fabulous italian food. yums.
so now my total cases is about 150. i almost have a 100 majors woo woo!
ok, i will try to update more often. i really do appreciate ya'll that stop by and check on the ol' blog. it's hard to believe sometimes that i've had this thing since 2006!
ABSITE was alright, i hope i got above 30th percentile...that's what my program uses as their cutoff for remediation, basically a "pass/fail" measure. we'll see...scores should be back by the end of the month. the past 2 weekends have thus been quite celebratory in nature, and i'm doing a self imposed liver detox now to make up for all my bad behavior, ha!
my hospital has this wellness campaign right now and we all got fitbits! they're fancy pedometers, and they have that wii technology in them so they can tell if you're walking, running, jumping, going up stairs, etc. i'm interested to see how much i can walk around. tonight i'm on ED call, so we'll see! the website lets you add your food eaten and all so you can do calorie counts, but i predict i'll be too lazy to input that stuff. i'm more interested in the mileage, etc.
so as to my goal of reading all of greenfield's...1 chapter down! hahaha!
i presented my first M&M last week. gallstone pancreatitis...patient had a lap chole but then ended up with a retained stone about 3 months postop. i was so nervous before the talk! we had just switched to a different presentation style, 5 slides, 1 article. i said my piece, presented my article, and then BAM, all the various attendings in the hall started talking about their views and experiences and blah blah blah...basically, my presentation and article had inspired a lot of talk and that is viewed as EXCELLENT JOB. even some of my fellow residents chimed in! yes! also, i'm so happy that there was a podium i could hide behind...my hands were shaking really bad. but now that i'm done with my first one, and know the routine, the next ones shouldn't be bad at all. and then some of my upper levels told me i did a good job afterwards...now THAT makes me happy. and then throughout the day some attendings STILL kept telling me their tidbits. it was like i had entered into some "secret club" or something. like i was telling H, that day was a great "professional" day for me...and we celebrated by eating some fabulous italian food. yums.
so now my total cases is about 150. i almost have a 100 majors woo woo!
ok, i will try to update more often. i really do appreciate ya'll that stop by and check on the ol' blog. it's hard to believe sometimes that i've had this thing since 2006!
Categories:
intern year
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
happy new year
holiday schedule almost kicked my butt...but all in all not so bad. i finally have my central line numbers! and the other day on call i got fem sticks on an essentially dead person...no pulse for my landmark and the code team was doing CPR, so i was proud of myself for finding blood on my first stick. so it was nice when i had to do one on a living patient in the trauma bay that i also got that one on my first stick as well.
everybody's been talking about resolutions. i'll throw some of mine out there...
everybody's been talking about resolutions. i'll throw some of mine out there...
- exercise at least once a week (which is going to be hard, believe you me)
- cook more
- read the entirety of greenfield's this year (might as well set lofty goals...haha)
so there you go. reflecting on the last year, it's kind of amazing to see where i am now. i can't believe intern year is half over, and i guess i'm not as bad as i think i am. i hope by now the other residents feel that they can trust me, at least with the little things. i've become more confident in my "this shit is bad" sense, ha. i do need to work on my confidence level and speak more authoritatively. i do need to become more efficient...i know i have, but it's still a long road. i refuse to compromise thoroughness, and i won't apologize for that.
right now H and i are looking at possibly buying a house vs. renting...it's weird thinking about "grown up" things. a part of me is afraid to do anything until i get my ABSITE score back...and oh yeah that test is jan 28. puke. (after i finish this blog entry i'll be doing a practice test to scare myself.)
i'm happy where i am. sure, it sucks to not see friends and family, or to not see H in 36+ hours at a time, but i do enjoy my job. it sucks also when you have edema around your ankles after a long day, and i should probably invest in some support hose while i'm thinking about it. and my back hurts a lot, but the free massages through my insurance help out! it super sucks when a chief calls you out on a mistake or your omission of important facts, but you just have to realize they want you to become a "bad ass" to quote the words of one of my chiefs. (Frylime, i don't want you to become a good surgeon, i want you to be a bad ass!) ok then! i'm trying! really hard!
so excuse me for a bit while i go cram some ABSITE. i'll try to update more and be better about commenting.
Sunday, December 04, 2011
time for an update...
i suppose it has been a while...i've been loving plastics! i got to do my first skin graft the other day...actually, got to harvest a full thickness skin graft on one patient, and then got to harvest a split thickness graft with the dermatome. fun times! i also got to close up an open appy the other night on call, first time suturing peritoneum, woo hoo!
now my total major cases number is 53! yay! and i have all my plastics numbers now, and i'm nearly finished with my breast/skin/soft tissue numbers too. i've been getting some good feedback from attendings, and that makes me feel like i'm improving. at least i can suture alright and whatnot, ha.
i have two med students with me on plastics and they are great. let me tell you...having good med students that are INDEPENDENT or at least can think on their own and are not so needy, they are worth their weight in gold! obviously people have to start somewhere, but it's awesome to see these students who don't really know how to suture or tie knots, etc, and then you take them through closing a wound and they do great.
i've been working on knitting a scarf, hopefully i'll be done soon enough because it is cold as $@^% up here! and it's not even REAL WINTER YET. boo!!! H and i bought tickets for christmas to go home...so that will be nice. get some good southern cooking!
oh and we've had several interview groups come through, and omg it is such a big deal to me! i wish i could personally interview everyone...because now that i'm on the other side of the fence...i want someone that i can trust to not screw up with my patients. i want a new intern class that will show up to call ON TIME. i want an intern who knows when he/she is over their head and needs help, versus "i'll try to fix this on my own". i want someone who is a team player and someone who i can say "hey let's go grab some food and a beer and hang out" or whatever. and then the match is so random anyway. alas! but i have met a few people that i get good vibes from...i've only been able to go to one interview dinner because of call duties, but those are SO IMPORTANT! so please go if you're interviewing!!! you get the residents' undivided attention and can get all the scoop on a program!
so yes, i'm surviving, life is good. i'm freaking out about ABSITE, but i've got some study group action going on...and let me tell you...studying infectious disease for surgical patients while drinking some good pinot noir is the way to do it!
and with that, i should study/nap/blah because i'm on call tonight. and with my luck the past few calls, i'll be slammed. fun times!
now my total major cases number is 53! yay! and i have all my plastics numbers now, and i'm nearly finished with my breast/skin/soft tissue numbers too. i've been getting some good feedback from attendings, and that makes me feel like i'm improving. at least i can suture alright and whatnot, ha.
i have two med students with me on plastics and they are great. let me tell you...having good med students that are INDEPENDENT or at least can think on their own and are not so needy, they are worth their weight in gold! obviously people have to start somewhere, but it's awesome to see these students who don't really know how to suture or tie knots, etc, and then you take them through closing a wound and they do great.
i've been working on knitting a scarf, hopefully i'll be done soon enough because it is cold as $@^% up here! and it's not even REAL WINTER YET. boo!!! H and i bought tickets for christmas to go home...so that will be nice. get some good southern cooking!
oh and we've had several interview groups come through, and omg it is such a big deal to me! i wish i could personally interview everyone...because now that i'm on the other side of the fence...i want someone that i can trust to not screw up with my patients. i want a new intern class that will show up to call ON TIME. i want an intern who knows when he/she is over their head and needs help, versus "i'll try to fix this on my own". i want someone who is a team player and someone who i can say "hey let's go grab some food and a beer and hang out" or whatever. and then the match is so random anyway. alas! but i have met a few people that i get good vibes from...i've only been able to go to one interview dinner because of call duties, but those are SO IMPORTANT! so please go if you're interviewing!!! you get the residents' undivided attention and can get all the scoop on a program!
so yes, i'm surviving, life is good. i'm freaking out about ABSITE, but i've got some study group action going on...and let me tell you...studying infectious disease for surgical patients while drinking some good pinot noir is the way to do it!
and with that, i should study/nap/blah because i'm on call tonight. and with my luck the past few calls, i'll be slammed. fun times!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
post vacation!
so i have gone forth and vacationed! and it was lovely!
H and i went down to florida and had a wonderful time in the SUN and being OUTSIDE and only needing to wear FLIP FLOPS and TANK TOPS. so nice! then we came back home and were assaulted by the cold. alas!
i start plastics on monday, yay!
i have an ABSITE study group that i'm working with...we're meeting early afternoon so i need to finishcramming reading for it.
so on vacation we ate some fabulous food...cuban food, venezuelan food, korean food, trendy sushi bar food! i shopped at the outlets...got 2 pairs of shoes, 2 wool sweaters, 2 dresses, 2 pants...a pair of jeans and some pj pants. so yeah, i shopped a lot, but considering that i haven't shopped for myself (other than the procurement of long underwears and wool socks!) in a while, i feel ok with that. plus it was all on major sale woo woo! the rate i'm going with residency, i won't shop again until next year, ha.
i finally updated my i.phone to the new software and i do suppose it's faster...
this week we have a group of interviewees coming through and i'm so excited! i did a tour for our first group before the vacation and it was so much fun...and i appreciated that 2 of them sent thank you emails. so internet world of interviewing med students...just know that THIS resident appreciates the emails. and yes, i emailed them back too. so this week we can go to the night before dinner and it's at this fancy place that is delicious, so excited about that too. i'm looking forward to meeting more people...i want to make sure we get good folks for sure.
ok, enough with the blogging, i need to study! and hopefully posting will be more regular now that i'm starting back on plastics...my last rotation was ROUGH to say the least. if there are any questions people want answered, just holla, i'll do my best!
chao chao!
H and i went down to florida and had a wonderful time in the SUN and being OUTSIDE and only needing to wear FLIP FLOPS and TANK TOPS. so nice! then we came back home and were assaulted by the cold. alas!
i start plastics on monday, yay!
i have an ABSITE study group that i'm working with...we're meeting early afternoon so i need to finish
so on vacation we ate some fabulous food...cuban food, venezuelan food, korean food, trendy sushi bar food! i shopped at the outlets...got 2 pairs of shoes, 2 wool sweaters, 2 dresses, 2 pants...a pair of jeans and some pj pants. so yeah, i shopped a lot, but considering that i haven't shopped for myself (other than the procurement of long underwears and wool socks!) in a while, i feel ok with that. plus it was all on major sale woo woo! the rate i'm going with residency, i won't shop again until next year, ha.
i finally updated my i.phone to the new software and i do suppose it's faster...
this week we have a group of interviewees coming through and i'm so excited! i did a tour for our first group before the vacation and it was so much fun...and i appreciated that 2 of them sent thank you emails. so internet world of interviewing med students...just know that THIS resident appreciates the emails. and yes, i emailed them back too. so this week we can go to the night before dinner and it's at this fancy place that is delicious, so excited about that too. i'm looking forward to meeting more people...i want to make sure we get good folks for sure.
ok, enough with the blogging, i need to study! and hopefully posting will be more regular now that i'm starting back on plastics...my last rotation was ROUGH to say the least. if there are any questions people want answered, just holla, i'll do my best!
chao chao!
Categories:
intern year
Sunday, October 30, 2011
one more week until vacation!
yay! exciting!
also, now i've taken two gallbladders off of the liver bed, woo woo! and it's a lot harder than it looks. so shame on me for all those instances of OMG WHY ARE THEY TAKING FOREVER IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT APPEARING...well, i have been put in my place.
yesterday i experienced driving through crazy snow for the first time, and let me tell you, HARD. surprisingly, no traumas at all!
i didn't think i would be looking forward to vacation this intensely...my parents are coming up to visit so we'll have about 48 hours of togetherness before H and i go down to FLORIDA! yay!!! then a whole week of fun! and SLEEPING! omg!!!
also, i have now started to freak out about the ABSITE...that's our annual exam that we take on jan 31. these tests...they are never ending it seems.
so now i have 40 major cases, i am quite excited about that. i do plastics again after i come back from vacation, so i'm hoping to at least be over 50 by the end of the calendar year. my program coordinator says i should have at least 100 cases by the end of intern year, which it seems will be a small number compared to what the upper levels got when they were interns...basically the 16 hour work restrictions have really decreased the cases we get. in my residency you operate like crazy from the get go. but peeking ahead in my schedule i have 2 months of rotation with outgoing chiefs so hopefully they will have gotten "senioritis" and let me do everything!
hope the internet world is treating everyone well...holla!
also, now i've taken two gallbladders off of the liver bed, woo woo! and it's a lot harder than it looks. so shame on me for all those instances of OMG WHY ARE THEY TAKING FOREVER IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT APPEARING...well, i have been put in my place.
yesterday i experienced driving through crazy snow for the first time, and let me tell you, HARD. surprisingly, no traumas at all!
i didn't think i would be looking forward to vacation this intensely...my parents are coming up to visit so we'll have about 48 hours of togetherness before H and i go down to FLORIDA! yay!!! then a whole week of fun! and SLEEPING! omg!!!
also, i have now started to freak out about the ABSITE...that's our annual exam that we take on jan 31. these tests...they are never ending it seems.
so now i have 40 major cases, i am quite excited about that. i do plastics again after i come back from vacation, so i'm hoping to at least be over 50 by the end of the calendar year. my program coordinator says i should have at least 100 cases by the end of intern year, which it seems will be a small number compared to what the upper levels got when they were interns...basically the 16 hour work restrictions have really decreased the cases we get. in my residency you operate like crazy from the get go. but peeking ahead in my schedule i have 2 months of rotation with outgoing chiefs so hopefully they will have gotten "senioritis" and let me do everything!
hope the internet world is treating everyone well...holla!
Categories:
intern year
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
central line
today i put in a central line...left subclavian, first stick, WAHOO! and no dropped lung!
there are some days where i have to take everything one step at a time and look at the overall positive/negative balance...today a lot of shit went down, but a lot of good things happened too. so i would say even though today was a bit bipolar feeling for me, overall it was good. at least i can reflect on the day's events and be proud of my actions, or learn from my mistakes, or know that i did the best that i could in the given situations. like i tell my students, "you want to be able to sleep at night". grace under fire. and thank goodness i have H to keep me grounded.
i started a new service on monday. a lot of foregut surgery (gastric bypass, etc) and surg onc. assisted on my first thyroidectomy today. fun times.
and now i should sleep...
there are some days where i have to take everything one step at a time and look at the overall positive/negative balance...today a lot of shit went down, but a lot of good things happened too. so i would say even though today was a bit bipolar feeling for me, overall it was good. at least i can reflect on the day's events and be proud of my actions, or learn from my mistakes, or know that i did the best that i could in the given situations. like i tell my students, "you want to be able to sleep at night". grace under fire. and thank goodness i have H to keep me grounded.
i started a new service on monday. a lot of foregut surgery (gastric bypass, etc) and surg onc. assisted on my first thyroidectomy today. fun times.
and now i should sleep...
Categories:
intern year
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
short notes...
just wanted to document that today i did my first ever laparoscopic dissection of the cystic artery and duct on a gallbladder! and put the clips on and cut and everything! yay! and i got to sew some fascia (on another case), and on yet another case i got to sew on some colostomy. fun times!
in other news i'm still quite sleep deprived, but it's all good. i love my job! even when people piss me off! and i'm tired! and it smells like poop! hahaha...!
hope all is well in internet land...i should do a good post soon. until then, i need to cram for this friday's educational session...
in other news i'm still quite sleep deprived, but it's all good. i love my job! even when people piss me off! and i'm tired! and it smells like poop! hahaha...!
hope all is well in internet land...i should do a good post soon. until then, i need to cram for this friday's educational session...
Categories:
intern year
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