This holiday makes me wonder when I got the medicine bug and why couldn't I have chosen something simpler where I don't have to study and I can schedule more time off? :) . I know every doctor thinks about that multiple times in their careers, and it's gonna take me a little while to get the "yeah, this is the only thing for me" feeling back.
The first week of my holiday I spent in Dublin, visiting friends and attending an alumni dinner for my old rowing club. I stayed in the Hilton Hotel for the weekend which I'd recommend to anybody, and then for a few days after, stayed in some friends' apts. It was nice, was like I never left and I was free to do whatever I wanted (ie. some training, even sculled for a trip!) like the times before I started working. I ran and cycled around phoenix park which was just like old times, and phoenix park is much bigger than central park so it was nice to get back to that.
I really miss sports and being able to train as much as I used to. Definitely have a few squishier spots now that I want to get rid of, but doing 2-4 hours training a day is now not possible!
Then for the second week of holidays, one of my Irish friends and another good Norwegian friend (both through rowing!) came over to visit. The first night, went to a Knicks vs. Wizards game which was boring for the first half but much more exciting the second half, so I'm glad they got to experience the atmosphere of Madison Sq. Garden even though they were both horribly jetlagged.
The next day, did the NY Movie and Tv tour, which was interesting and informative, took us through most parts of NY, but I don't think any of us were that into it and it took a good 3.5 hours. Our finishing point was the Palace hotel, which we went into to look at the christmas decorations, and a guy there gave us free tickets to see this year's Gypsy reprisal! Great seats, was an interesting musical (not my favorite sondheim even though everyone raved about it) a little funny on the plot (but i'd never really seen/heard about it before), but I thought the acting was amazing, especially by Laura Benanti who transforms from a tomboy into this gorgeous burlesque dancer / stripper. Well she's won herself a new fan anyway!
Unfortunately, one of my friends became ill and we came back early after wandering Times Square a little (I love Times Square, all the lights! I wouldn't even want to see their electricity bills!). Two of us went to this lovely euro-caribbean restaurant near me and then slept off more jet lag. Up early the next morning to the Statue of Liberty which we felt we had to go to just to satisfy the tourist requirement, so now we've done it and we didn't bother with Ellis Island. Then shopping up 5th avenue! After playing in FAO Schwartz, we were starving so had a great burger at Mickey Mantle's. I don't think my friends had been in that kind of sports restaurant before!
Took my friends to see the Guggenheim (interesting exhibits), and one of them became museum'ed out fairly early so she took off for some shopping while the rest of us went to the Metropolitan museum. I'm not an art connoiseur but I definitely am not really a fan of the Dutch style painting. Perked up a bit when we got to the more modern sections, and then came across a fabulous exhibit of modern British prints (including rowing!) which we loved. Made a hasty bee-line for the exit, then wandered around Soho for a bit and the outskirts of chinatown, chilled in a nice Soho bar then walked in search of food to the west end where we found some dodgy steak outfit where the waitress couldn't describe the food to us. I found this hilarious, but then again I was drunk off two glasses of wine in the soho bar, so I couldn't talk.
After a lie in on wednesday, we returned to the theatre district to see Wicked, which is a fantastic production. Not a huge fan of the music (I must have an "older" musical music taste), but the story line, setting / props and dance were terrific! It made funny allusions to the wizard of oz and the plot / dialogue was quite clever. I'm sure it was amazingly fun to write the play and see it pan out on stage! I'd love to know how to do that! Then went up to the top of the Rockefeller center, which is a terrific view, a little more shopping and then to the Hudson Hotel for dinner (they do lovely steaks, and the dessert portions are enormous!). The rest of the night was a little dodgy, as we went to two bars on different sides of town but they weren't very club-y. A friend of mine joined us, as well as one of the more laid back attendings and some lads also on vacation who my Irish friend knew.
Thursday - Thanksgiving, hurrah! We stayed in bed the whole morning, didn't even watch any of the Macy's parade, had a bit of brunch and I went back to sleep while the two girls trudged through central park. Had Thanksgiving dinner at Tavern on the Green, which I was glad to go to as the decor was interesting / funky / a little tawdry?, but don't think I'll be going back there again. The queue for those who had reservations was 45 minutes! On the way out, i got waylaid by a lady who said I had terrific karma (what does that mean exactly?!) and gave me her business card, for some tarot / psychic thing. But perhaps it was true because the Chase 1 in 500 free worked to my advantage that night!
We chilled for a little, and then I thought it'd be a great idea to go to woodbury commons for some black friday midnight shopping. Well apparently, so did a million other people because traffic to there was nearly standstill for about 3 hours. It took us 4.5 hours in the car to get to this place and there's no where to turn around to go back! On a normal day would take 1 hour. So after getting there at 3:30 am, at least my friends got tons of shopping done and everyone came back wrecked, but happy. That is definitely something i will avoid in the future, I will pay higher prices like everyone else :).
After coming home at 9 am, we slept for a couple hours and back to 5th ave / madison ave for some further shopping (notice a theme here?). New York is absolutely amazing for shopping, you can basically find everything here! since being here, I have definitely contributed to the profit margins of Bed Bath and Beyond and well as Banana republic (I must like B's) I've spent so much it's ridiculous! and I still don't have all the christmas presents ready! From what I saw and the amount my friends got, america is not going into recession this Christmas at least! Then we had dinner at this absolutely fabulous westernized asian/fusion place called Phillipe's, which I am definitely going back to.
Unfortunately, the holiday came to a close and after some last minute shopping, my friends returned home with very full bags and emptier wallets. But we fit in some tourist attractions, sight-seeing, good restaurants, Broadway shows and a lot of shopping, so all-in-all a very productive trip! I wish I didn't have to work so I could just spend all my days going to see all the Broadway (and off-Broadway) shows, museums, wandering around central park and doing some training for once, but 'tis not to be. At least I'm in the city where everything happens, so maybe eventually!
Back to it tomorrow...dun dun dun....
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Nuts!
I spent the first two weeks of November at in Harlem for my first rotation there. That place gets nuts! The first day wasn't actually too bad, as it was the day of the NYC Marathon and surprisingly, we didn't get that many patients.
However, that was the only quiet day. But even though it got hectic, most attendings took everything in stride and handled the patient load well. They've got some people who can run an ED well, and it makes such a difference. They have a sicker population, which was interesting. Did a few NG lavages which became a funny situation, as they recently got a supply of new equipment and it took ages to try to figure out how to get suction, so we're running through all different scenarios while this guy has a tube hanging out his nose.
I had an interesting patient who was perfectly lovely except for seeing demons / creatures on the walls. I actually became irritated at the attendant who kept repeating "the pt's crazy, everyone knows it, the family knows it, just crazy!" But the patient was very with it except for the seeing "evil," poor person. I hope they found a cause.
My last shift was absolutely pressing panic buttons. All was grand until about mid-morning when all of a sudden, sick patients were coming in at the same time. I was looking after a patient who I realized could be very pausibly having a brain bleed as I was interviewing him/her, and the attending at the time (who I get along well with and said some nice things about me) also had a couple sickies and as we were making plans, the CT machine went down. So then I spent about 3 hours trying to transfer them to another facility to have a CT, meanwhile checking every 5 minutes to see whether my possible brain bleed was still stable and the attending and I debating on whether we should do the LP or not without a confirmed bleed. We ended up doing the lumbar puncture with no complications, to our great relief.
And then I dashed home to hop on a plane to Dublin for the beginning of my holiday!
However, that was the only quiet day. But even though it got hectic, most attendings took everything in stride and handled the patient load well. They've got some people who can run an ED well, and it makes such a difference. They have a sicker population, which was interesting. Did a few NG lavages which became a funny situation, as they recently got a supply of new equipment and it took ages to try to figure out how to get suction, so we're running through all different scenarios while this guy has a tube hanging out his nose.
I had an interesting patient who was perfectly lovely except for seeing demons / creatures on the walls. I actually became irritated at the attendant who kept repeating "the pt's crazy, everyone knows it, the family knows it, just crazy!" But the patient was very with it except for the seeing "evil," poor person. I hope they found a cause.
My last shift was absolutely pressing panic buttons. All was grand until about mid-morning when all of a sudden, sick patients were coming in at the same time. I was looking after a patient who I realized could be very pausibly having a brain bleed as I was interviewing him/her, and the attending at the time (who I get along well with and said some nice things about me) also had a couple sickies and as we were making plans, the CT machine went down. So then I spent about 3 hours trying to transfer them to another facility to have a CT, meanwhile checking every 5 minutes to see whether my possible brain bleed was still stable and the attending and I debating on whether we should do the LP or not without a confirmed bleed. We ended up doing the lumbar puncture with no complications, to our great relief.
And then I dashed home to hop on a plane to Dublin for the beginning of my holiday!
I don't want to do medicine anymore!
... just kidding, but I'm just finished two weeks of holidays and the thoughts of going back to work are depressing!
In October, I was doing ER at my home hospital, which can be not-so-pleasant for a number of reasons. First, I need to do a lot more reading and studying because there are some areas I don't feel very comfortable in, but having time to do said studying is proving impossible since first years are assigned 20 shifts a month. A lot of your "days off" are actually spent trying to recover from night shift before you have to switch schedules again. I don't mind shiftwork, but it can make it difficult to plan things and use your time as effectively as if you had a patterned week.
Also, I'm finding myself beginning to get cynical, especially with regards to my home hospital and society in general. I think it's a bit scary, especially as I'm only 5 months into residency. The patient population here I find can be a little irritating. Probably a lot of things I write are going to be quite un-PC, but c'est la vie. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who do nothing to help themselves. This varies from refusal to learn English even after being in this country for a number of years (then wondering why doctors have no clue what they're trying to say, even with those damn interpreter phones which I am startin to hate) to coming in with severe asthma exacerbations because they ran out of medications 2 weeks ago (why they hell didn't you see your doctor 2 weeks ago and save yourself this mess?!) to foul-smelling nearly gangrenous cellulitic legs which are going to need amputation but could have been saved had they presented when it first started. When asked why, all you get is a shrug of the shoulders and a non-committal "I dunno." I feel we should make billboards telling the general public that medicine is not a magic wand, there are no quick fixes and we can't make their serious conditions disappear without any consequences.
Also, a hell of a lot of people flood the EDs for no reason. What part of "emergency" do people not understand? The cold that started yesterday does not warrant a visit! No, we do not give medicine to everybody! Your papercut is not a fucking emergency! Then they start complaining about the long waits or the fact that we aren't "doing" anything because they were expecting some pill. Wish we could hand out placebo pills. Wish we could turn people away at the door for things that do not need to be seen. And to top it off, the hospital gives free subway cards to patients on request, so some even make up conditions just to get the card! I just really can't stand it that these people are getting free healthcare and are the most ungrateful people I have seen, looking for the next free thing they can get from the hospital and complaining while they do so.
My friends know that one of the things I value most in people is if they treat others well, have a bit of ambition and put a little effort in to achieve their goals. The exact opposite is what I see on a daily basis and it's grating to constantly see that society and have words fall on deaf ears. Some of it is miscommunication between doctors and patients, but at the same time, we cannot make people look after their own health / life.
Anyway, when the free emergency healthcare system works for patients who actually need it, it is very rewarding. I estimate that happens about 60% of the time and 40% was probably preventable
In October, I was doing ER at my home hospital, which can be not-so-pleasant for a number of reasons. First, I need to do a lot more reading and studying because there are some areas I don't feel very comfortable in, but having time to do said studying is proving impossible since first years are assigned 20 shifts a month. A lot of your "days off" are actually spent trying to recover from night shift before you have to switch schedules again. I don't mind shiftwork, but it can make it difficult to plan things and use your time as effectively as if you had a patterned week.
Also, I'm finding myself beginning to get cynical, especially with regards to my home hospital and society in general. I think it's a bit scary, especially as I'm only 5 months into residency. The patient population here I find can be a little irritating. Probably a lot of things I write are going to be quite un-PC, but c'est la vie. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who do nothing to help themselves. This varies from refusal to learn English even after being in this country for a number of years (then wondering why doctors have no clue what they're trying to say, even with those damn interpreter phones which I am startin to hate) to coming in with severe asthma exacerbations because they ran out of medications 2 weeks ago (why they hell didn't you see your doctor 2 weeks ago and save yourself this mess?!) to foul-smelling nearly gangrenous cellulitic legs which are going to need amputation but could have been saved had they presented when it first started. When asked why, all you get is a shrug of the shoulders and a non-committal "I dunno." I feel we should make billboards telling the general public that medicine is not a magic wand, there are no quick fixes and we can't make their serious conditions disappear without any consequences.
Also, a hell of a lot of people flood the EDs for no reason. What part of "emergency" do people not understand? The cold that started yesterday does not warrant a visit! No, we do not give medicine to everybody! Your papercut is not a fucking emergency! Then they start complaining about the long waits or the fact that we aren't "doing" anything because they were expecting some pill. Wish we could hand out placebo pills. Wish we could turn people away at the door for things that do not need to be seen. And to top it off, the hospital gives free subway cards to patients on request, so some even make up conditions just to get the card! I just really can't stand it that these people are getting free healthcare and are the most ungrateful people I have seen, looking for the next free thing they can get from the hospital and complaining while they do so.
My friends know that one of the things I value most in people is if they treat others well, have a bit of ambition and put a little effort in to achieve their goals. The exact opposite is what I see on a daily basis and it's grating to constantly see that society and have words fall on deaf ears. Some of it is miscommunication between doctors and patients, but at the same time, we cannot make people look after their own health / life.
Anyway, when the free emergency healthcare system works for patients who actually need it, it is very rewarding. I estimate that happens about 60% of the time and 40% was probably preventable
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)