Friday, August 29, 2008

This is getting ridiculous.

Ok, call me naive. I had no idea NYC and roaches were synonymous. This is probably the worst place I have ever lived, but having said that, it's still liveable - except for the F_IN ROACHES! Oh, we've laughed, we've cried about them but now i'm starting to get really irritated. 

So my hospital provides housing, which is great - a dorm style building (individual rooms are only 9' x 13' though) that's right across the hospital, and the location itself is convenient to the subway station and bus lines. Laundry machines on each floor, NO BILLS (except internet / cable which is contracted out) which is very useful for those of us keeping the AC and lights on 24/7 trying to deter the roaches, and hospital police for the front-doormen. Gym downstairs too, although it's very bare. We're hoping to build it up. And, "rent" is only like 300 a month, which is subsidized by my program / hospital. 

However, the roaches. It's an old building and believe it or not, some people either through laziness, tolerance or religious opposition, DON'T KILL THEM! SO then they infest other people's rooms, they're in the walls, when I walk into the communal "kitchen" sometimes there's like 5-6 scurrying away from me and sometimes when I open the communal microwave, they scuttle out too!! I mean, GROSS! 

I have become completely roach-obsessed. I spent all of today cleaning every single item I own, taking out the drawers and spraying, buying two tubes of caulk and caulking every crack I can find, I have roach bait everywhere. And I thought I was getting control of them until I saw one pregnant one yesterday and one large pregnant one today. The little ones I don't mind. The big ones I really do mind. My neighbor must not be killing them. 

It's becoming a serious problem, I can't study cuz I look up, see one then spend 1 second killing it and 9 minutes cleaning the area. I can't sleep cuz I keep imagining them crawling on me when I sleep (although that has never happened, they actually don't go near my bed but one of my friends said he woke up to find 3 of them staring at him and he subsequently screamed like a girl). You can actually hear people screaming in the hallway if they find a particularly gross looking one.  

I wish the administration would exterminate the whole building, but as far as I know, they only spray individual rooms. I hope all these fumes and stuff build up my immune system and not weaken it. I've already gotten 2 bad colds in the last two months.

I was getting so mad the other day because in my spoiled mindset, I was like "I paid for 9 years of high quality education, I worked damn hard to become a doctor, so why am I now living in a shithole that is the smallest hole I have ever lived in?" I was considering moving out...until I realized that unless you rent those really expensive apts in manhattan, it's a problem everywhere in the city. And some apts get like dead rats and crap too. 

Sigh. I was considering staying here after residency. Maybe if I could afford one of those luxury apts, I will. Who knows. sheesh. I'm bombing / fogging my room tomorrow. I hope to god it works. 

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

More from me... 

Enough about work! I haven't had much time to go out and explore but will definitely in the next coming months! 

July 4th weekend,sky-trammed to Roosevelt Island to have a look, and saw my dorm / hospital from the East River side, then walked along the promenade next to the FDR "highway" to watch the Macy's parade. Frankly, unless you're right at the spot, it's probably better on TV but I may be saying that cuz it was pissing rain and we were all getting wet. 

Then the first weekend of August, went back home for my 10 year high school reunion, which was a lot of fun! The bar in the beginning helped, but it was good fun catching up with everyone. No one's really changed that much even though so much in everyone's individual life has. But basically, those who wanted to be doctors in high school are, and so are those who wanted to be lawyers, teachers, etc. A few people are married with kids and stuff, but those just seem like details. 

Otherwise, I've been spending my free time watching the Olympics, going to the gym, catching up on sleep, arranging my room (I still need to arrange rug / carpets) and trying to get it roach-free which I think may finally be working after buying every product available, and lastly...studying. heh. I figure once the Olympics are over, I'll be doing more reading - that's what I tell myself anyway. Besides the rug(s), the last things I need to do are hang my pictures / photos, maybe wall mount my tv, and I'm dying to buy a bike once I find a place to lock it. 

Anyway, enough mickey mouse stuff. Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to post soon!

Hello from the peds ER! I'm doing my pediatric emergency month right now, and I'm really enjoying myself. I thought I'd hate it because kids aren't my thing, but surprisingly I've found it a joy to work with them. They can be really cute and I'm finding that I can build a good rapport with them and their parents...well, most of the time anyway. Such a change from my student days where I was distancing myself from babies at arms' length! And the people I'm working with (attendings, most students, the nurses) are great fun to be around.

The only thing I don't like is doing procedures (including bloods) on them because obviously they don't like it and kick and scream as soon as they see you coming, and it's hard for parents to watch. But c'est la vie, has to be done. The last day I got an IV in a 5 month old on my first try and nearly whooped with joy. I've done a few laceration repairs (always with shaky hands, those kids are so jumpy) and a couple foreign body removals (ie. beads stuck up noses).

Another thing that's really difficult is when something bad happens. Today, a child who was seen yesterday (on my day off) and admitted to the hospital took a turn for the worse and passed away. It really upset the staff because the child came into the ED communicating well and fairly stable on admission, but started deteriorating soon after. As always, there is reflection and discussion about appropriate management, as well as quite a few tears and empathy for those poor parents. It put a damper on things but then you have to focus on the kids currently in the ED and work resumes again. I've worked in MICU before where things are sad and serious, but there's just a lot more gravity when a child is affected.

Anyway, after I wrote last, we had 2 weeks of ER orientation which were great - I finally understand how to read ECGs better, a smidge about how to read ultrasounds (I still need a lot of practice) and refreshed some facts in the far depths of my memory. I'm always going to have to be studying, but still trying to settle in a bit which is a) very expensive and b) very time-consuming! I must have contributed to half of Bed Bath and Beyond's profit share this month!

The last two weeks of July we did shifts in the adult ED and a couple shifts in the peds ED. I was hoping it'd be smooth transition, but I think all of us got caught trying to get used to the system. The first week was frustrating, asking everyone how to order things on the computer which really slowed us down, forgetting to ask things in the history and having to go back to ask, forgetting answers to questions I knew way back when while getting pimped (lightly, there's no heavy pimping that goes on here that I've seen) but should definitely know (I totally forgot about anion gap / electrolyte stuff in hyperglycemia), etc. But I think we've gotten into the groove of things now and developed some rapport with the people we work with. 

I like our peds ED because you see a greater volume of  "easier" patients so I've gotten practice with getting histories quickly and doing examinations quickly, as well as multi-tasking because I'm also the most senior person there in the mornings so I take all the students' presentations and my work quadruples in like 20 minutes if it's busy. The peds ED can get really crowded and busy too, which is a useful experience to have when people are shouting all over the place to hear each other and everyone's hurrying everywhere and things are falling onto the floor and babies are screaming, etc. 

The only thing I wish we had more of us a little direct supervision. Not that I want hand holding, but sometimes...you're seriously thrown into things without a) having done it before or b) knowing the exact specifics of how to do it and c) without someone watching you. Talk about knowing some theory, trying to apply it practically and praying to God you don't F__ up. I can understand how it's useful to be thrown into it, and the situations I've dealt with aren't that serious, but talk about adrenaline pumping. And not only that, sometimes I find myself teaching / supervising people doing things when I haven't even done it myself. You seriously take the bull by the horns, grit your teeth and just do it. Everyone is very nice and offers help, but it comes more in verbal advice rather than direct supervision. This is how it works in a busy system that does not have as much staffing as other places might...and you know, it has worked for now and made me a lot more confident. But I'll keep praying!