Spring!

I'm really happy it's starting to get a bit warmer and the days are longer. Have been really good about getting to the gym and doing some weights / running, even though I'm half-commuting to Westchester for my ER rotation (which is fantastic). The teaching is great, procedures are great...too bad we can't have an environment like this at my home hospital. I'd love working at a place like that. In the last two weeks I've gotten to do a very clean lumbar puncture (brilliant, took me all of 5 minutes, they never go like that for me!), a shoulder reduction with arthrocentesis, seen two chest tube placements. That's pretty awesome. 

Have continued my theater splurge and since seen 33 Variations (with Jane Fonda), which is absolutely brilliant. So ingenious, it amazes me how Kaufman can have the clarity to think like that, make connections between a speculation on why Beethoven wrote his 33 Variations and the modern-day life of his musicologist, and life in general. I might have to see it again, or get the script for it. I love really intelligent plays like that. I've also seen the new musical "Next to Normal," which is creative but I can't really understand why everyone is raving about it. I don't really like the music in these new musicals. Bar one, "Invisible Girl and Super boy," I don't really like the music although some of the lyrics are kind of funny. Same as in Wicked, I don't really like the music except "Defying Gravity." Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but bring back the Gershwin / Hammerstein music. At least Sondheim's music makes sense, he's probably the only contemporary composer who makes good musical music. 

This Wednesday I'm going on my first eharmony match date. Still a little wary of meeting someone off a dating website, but seeing as how it's nearly impossible to meet anyone when you're working, and that people don't approach each other in gyms and whatnot like they do in movies (never mind the fact that I still tower over all the boys in the gym) that's the only way to go. So dinner and then seeing Waiting for Godot with Nathan Lane...that alone should guarantee a good night! 

I'm glad I'm in WMC ER right now with such a good experience so far. It reaffirms my part-desire to be a doctor and help people, and when I'm at work I enjoy it. I still know that being a doctor isn't the only thing that I want to have happen in my life and I'm still going to explore other options, but now I'm not as depressed as I was a couple weeks ago and it's a good job to be a "baseline" job. I still need to work a lot and study, but still having time for a theatre habit so that's not too bad! And I'm starting to work at creative endeavors with writing ideas and buying a guitar off amazon ;). We'll see if it can get me more content! 

More fun in the big city!

Man, my vacation was hectic and went way too fast :)!

Spent the first week of it in our condo in Vegas, where we had a family reunion with my grandmother and my sis (wooo!). Didn't really do much except eat, took a load of silly photos at the Valley of Fire park and flower shows in Bellagio. Only walked 1/2 of the strip once, because a day got wasted by sis getting sick >:(. And of course, buffet in Paris where I managed not to eat the whole dessert area like I did last time.

After leaving Vegas (having to get up at 3 am for the flight) and landing in NYC many hours later, saw an Ionesco play called Exit the King on Broadway (with Susan Sarandon, Geoffrey Rush, Lauren Ambrose) which was possibly not the best choice to end a long day. Not only was it dark and slightly depressing although there were a few funny bits in the first half, the second half was full of dragging monologues and esoteric dialogue which put everyone to sleep. We were in the 4th row from stage and in front of us this lady started snoring, and her friend with her gave her a huge elbow nudge, to which the sleeping lady jumped a foot in her chair and everyone behind her started snickering right in the middle of this death epiphany by Geoffrey Rush. Man, that was a head-banger.



Then Saturday we saw Blithe Spirit (Rupert everett, Angela Lansbury) and it was fantastic. The whole play is so witty and funny and Lansbury yet again is great at playing eccentric characters. Ate at Sardi's which was lovely and atmosphere is fantastic with all those actors' caricatures. Then we saw the Ibsen play, Hedda Gabler (Mary Louise Parker), and I wish we'd reversed the order of seeing these two because while well-performed, it was quite dark and bleek. I'll also try to avoid the American Airlines theater (roundtree) in the future because if you sit on the right side, it's adjacent to some alleyway in times square and you can hear all the immature teenage passerbys and lorries honking horns.

Sunday, we spent basically the whole day shopping at Woodbury Commons. Obviously spent loads of money and were wrecked by the end of it! We'd been up til 4 am the night before as we couldn't sleep, but somehow we managed to plod through the piles of clothes and Coach bags!

Monday, my friend from Ireland came and so we had a nice easy day of it, met up with a couple friends at my local bar and we managed to seriously bore my sis and my friend with all the medicine talk. I really need to find more non-medical friends!

Tuesday was the museum day and we raced through the Guggenheim, Metropolitan and Natural History museums. Man, that was a whirlwind and I won't be back to those for awhile! Think i might buy membership to the Met museum and just sit in the conservatory to read. Then Bubba Gumps for dinner in Times Square, which was a lot of fun and loads of silly pictures ;).

Wednesday we saw West Side Story on Broadway, which was good. This production is different because they've sung some of the songs in Spanish. I think that concept is interesting, but at the same time, I didn't like spending 120 dollars on tickets to not understand what they were saying. The lead guy of the jets started the opening song off key though he corrected himself. And the men weren't quite macho enough, in my opinion - i mean, i know west side story has some ballet style dance in it, but perhaps a little too effeminate casting. Good singing from the leads though.

That night, we went to the Knicks game, which was really exciting in the end even though now I can't remember who won...I think the Knicks did. They came out really strongly, but then let it go in the 2nd quarter and had to play catch up. My friend caught one of those tshirts that they shoot into the crowd, heh!

Thursday we drove to the Bronx Botanical Gardens which was nice (my Irish mate is into botany and all) and took silly photos of cacti and orchids. Had a nice chat before driving her to the airport. And then on the way back from JFK, got completely lost (in the dark) with my sis needing to pee really badly. Finally got the GPS working (woo for GPS!) and made it back before she had an "accident" in the car.

Friday we got TKTS to see 39 steps, which was hilarious. Very creative as 4 people play multiple parts. I love the theater!

Saturday, woke up early to stand in the TKTS line again hoping to see In the Heights (but it wasn't out yet) and then we met up with a couple high school friends (awesome!) for brunch in Greenwich. It's always nice catching up. Saw Reasons to be Pretty (Piper Perabo, Steven Pasquale even though neither of those two are the lead characters) which was interesting as you watched how a minor comment spirals into a huge life event, and was mildly amusing. A little too much cursing for me though. Then, my sis was curious about August: Osage county so we went back to the TKTS line and got tickets, and it was brilliant. Very funny watching this dysfunctional but normal ? family with most social taboos worked in! we were way up in the mezzanine though, so some parts were a little hard to hear. I'm just making notes for myself for other performances i try to see in the same theaters. I definitely have become a very avid theater-goer!

Then after getting very little sleep, Viv left for LaGuardia at like 5 am . :( . Damn, I wish we were at the stage in our lives where we could get the big house / apartment together like we always planned. We've been apart for nearly 8 years now after spending every single day together and I thought I'd welcome the change (and I have to some degree), but now I at least want her around to do stuff with, since my social network is still in Ireland .

Then this past Tuesday, I took myself to see the new Durang play (Why torture is wrong) mainly because I wanted to see Laura Benanti act again (I saw her in Gypsy). It was definitely interesting, made a few funny jabs, and the actress who plays the mother is hilarious! I think some roles had a little overacting going on, but I just find there's something very engaging about Ms. Benanti that's captivating. I spent the rest of the vacation downloading and watching episodes of True Blood, I'm not really certain why!

I've been feeling pretty down lately, which is something new for me. I've never felt this way before, and it's not pleasant, especially when I'm supposed to be on vacation relaxing! Maybe it's because my twin left. I just feel like there's something really missing in my life, I'm not enjoying my work and it's not exciting me to go into work. I like the idea of being a doctor, and I like acquiring the skills. But it's not a culmination for me, I don't feel like I have achieved anything. It's funny how people measure success as they grow older. Some would think I've done a lot and am a very successful individual at this age, and I thought I would feel that way too. But I don't...I want something more and I'm not sure what that something is.

Maybe it's the fact that to get to this point, I was involved in so many things and now those have just been cut out due to work committments, and I don't like my life just being medicine. I'd love to get into more creative endeavors, I think at the very least I'll start a little writing again (even though my thoughts are so jumbled I feel I don't know where to begin). But right now I'm questioning my life / career choice, and if I had to opt differently, I wonder what it would have been like to pursue one of the possibilities I was thinking of when I was 18 to be a musician / performing artist, although that would have been the less stable route. Although if I didn't do medicine, I never would have gone overseas to Trinity and met my wonderful friends there. Maybe I have too many unrealistic ambitions, but I still feel like a young kid who wants to get out there and do everything and make a mark in the world!

Vegas!!

Have done quite a bit of nothing (besides work) these last couple weeks, and now am just finishing a couple days in Vegas, where we're having a family reunion at the condo. It's been really nice, gorgeous weather in the 80s and I love the sun! I'd love moving here except for the lack of water. We spent several hours at the Valley of Fire state park which had gorgeous red rock and stone formations. We missed seeing petroglyphs because my parents/grandmother weren't keen on hiking to those spots, but we amused ourselves by taking silly photos anyway! Who else can I take silly photos with except my twin :) :) ?

Then Wednesday we took some photos in a lovely flower exhibit at the Bellagio (more silly photos), they're always very creative in making their displays. We wandered around the strip more but only got halfway. Did some fake sword-fighting in Excalibur and rode the hideously expensive New York New York roller coaster where we had to wait for front row seats, of course. Fun enough and scenery is cool, but the pictures they take are kinda crappy and don't even include the taxi-cab-looking cars. Then spent hours in M&M world and coke world so Viv could find gifts for friends. Coke world have made these cool shirts which smell like their products, but they're too sweet-smelling and would definitely attract all sorts of interesting bugs in the summer. Good thing we think practically cuz otherwise I'd buy everything under the sun! Then had dinner at Rainforest cafe which is always a blast. I think Viv ate something bad though cuz she spent all last night and today running for the porcelain god....

...which sucked because we were hoping to go back to the Strip and finish off the rest of the half (I love Caesars Palace), but it wasn't to be. She's feeling a little bit better now, but my family ignored my doctory advice and tried pushing some herbal medications which I've never heard of before.

Anyway, to Manhattan tomorrow so I can show my sis and friends the dazzle of NYC!

I think I'm becoming more financially educated, having done my taxes (and paid HR Block an enormous sum to do it for me and fix my errors), and looking up all these Roth IRA companies online, and trying to come to grips with the funds in my 403(b) / TDA. I should take a class one day. But I think anyone who is or will be a resident should try to max out their Roth IRA each year of their residency before we become ineligible when earning an attending salary. I only have 3 years to do that unless I do a fellowship. So word to those who know nothing like me: INVEST IN A ROTH IRA NOW! The market is falling so your money will buy you more shares which will compound more interest when they start rising again.

Well, last month was busy! Everyone was just so tired. You have to cram nearly the same amount of shifts (one shift less) into a short month. A bit insane, even though you can get more coverage during a day. I came in on a week of nights and was hit with a thoracotomy (I came too late so couldn't get into the action) and we spent the whole night trying to recover from it although it was cool seeing it. A GSW that transected the descending aorta unfortunately. The third year resident was too busy doing paperwork for the police so I ended up taking all the sign outs. I don't really know if a first year has done that before at my program. It was tough following everything and trying to deal with incomplete signouts, and meanwhile the chart rack remains overflowing. But no matter how bad a shift seems, I've learned it doesn't kill you and you survive.



Then we had our inservice. Have to say didn't study for it as much as I wanted to, but we'll see. .. 1st years generally don't pass, but the questions seemed manageable. Had a nice post inservice party! It's so nice when nearly all the residents and some attendings can be together. And we learned our ER chief of service has a fantastic apartment ;).



Now trying to figure out how to do my taxes. I don't think I'm doing something right cuz I keep getting it saying I'm making a negative operating loss. I think I may need to get a financial advisor, sigh.

Snow Snow Snow!

On the eve of our seemingly savior President's inauguration, I've never seen so much snow coming down as now. I'm not from a snow-shy state either, but walking home last night, so much snow caked on my head that it actually weighed me down!

Right now doing my medicine floors month in Valhalla at one of our sister hospitals. I will be so glad when it's done. Just not my cup of tea, and I never thought I'd say this, but I like the way the St. James's (Dublin) medicine teams run a lot more. I'd forgotten how on floors you never ever get out on time, doesn't matter whether you're in surgery or medicine, you can't possibly enjoy your life like that. At least with ER you know you end at such-and-such time and get definite days off. I've talked to many disgruntled people over the last few weeks, including the superstar residents, high-ranked surgeons...they definitely don't tell you this crap when you're a young doctor hopeful.

Although residency is tough on everyone and so many 12 hr. shifts in first year really kills your spirit, I'm so glad I'm in ER. There's fewer arrogant assholes. I wish patients in hospital could see what their residents have to go through and how what seems like a small simple task is actually the result of someone scurrying high and low, begging, yelling, crying to accomplish it. Then on top of that everything is complicated by the state of health care in this country, medicaid and medicare limiting doctor's options, etc. Makes me more tempted to become an ex-patriate again!

But aside from all that, I think I'm disgruntled because I'm lacking a creative outlet . You spend time doing all these extracurriculars and excelling in all these activities to make you a well-rounded person because that's what med schools and residency programs want (well you do too but you know what I mean). Then when you get into residency, all of a sudden all those extra things are taken away from you and your whole life is just medicine when you've gotten used to being able to do and balance everything. can't wait for more time to just enjoy other things.

I'm starting to realize that medicine is just a job like everything else, and although for me it's a more preferable, safe stable job than others, it's just acquiring a set of skills like a mechanic or electrician. I always thought that loving your job was to love your life, and that medicine was the only job that I could like, but now I want to spend all my free time not doing medicine! It could be worse, but am definitely longing for the day when I can feel balanced again.

We'll see what changes our new president can instigate. I'd definitely love the pressure to be relieved from the ERs.

Apart from all this medicine mumbo jumbo, have checked out a couple restaurants for NYC's winter restaurant week. Went to a quite nice cozy French place last night, and checking out a Scandanavian restaurant tonight! Woo! I don't know how but somehow have lost like 6 pounds ... by eating!

heh.

I treated a patient today who got bitten by a squirrel. X saw a squirrel outside the house looking "in distress," and decided to take some vital signs on it. How on earth you take vital signs on a squirrel I have no idea, but it obviously didn't really work so well for X because all X got for it was a good CHOMP on the hand. While I was struggling very hard not to laugh at the image of near CPR on a squirrel, X supplied that X got far enough to determine that the poor squirrel was indeed in respiratory distress. Now, how high a squirrel's blood pressure should be or how fast a squirrel breathes is beyond my depth of knowledge. But I rewarded X with a Good Samaritan award from our hospital on the discharge paper!

You definitely see some strange things in this line of work!

Oh, I also learned today that "toast" means "gun." Y was mugged and reported that there was some toast involved on the assailant's part. Here I was thinking "Oh sure, ok there was a scuffle at the shop and some food fight was involved and somehow he got some toast." My attending even asked specifically if there was a gun involved and I was like "Oh not at all, only fists." Didn't I feel like an idiot when my attending questioned Y and came back to me and was like, "Um...did you know that "toast / belt / heater" means "gun?" I mean seriously come on, like that's intuitive. How am I supposed to know that?! Everyone's laughter (including my Y's and Y's family) followed me to the phone while I called NYPD.

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....

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!

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

Things are better and brighter!

Mainly because I think I rid myself mostly of the roach problem :). I still see a couple sometimes, but I figure I just have to fog every once in awhile and it'll be ok. 

So I'm now two rotations down, but I fear they were my easiest ones!

August was Peds ER which I surprisingly found myself enjoying, since as a student I held kids out at arms length and didn't want them near me! But I had fun for the most part, except when asked to stay 1.5 hours overtime to "supervise" the other peds residents doing lacs (how f-in ridiculous! just because I'm 2 months into ER does not mean I'm expert at lacs, and why the hell can't the more senior residents or the attending supervise?!). And also when playing mind games with some of the peds residents who get lazy and try not to see any patients and shove it on you, or when they don't manage ER cases properly. Once, I actually shouted at one of the residents, took 3 of his cases from him and told him which case to take, then took another 2 at the same time and cleared the ED in an hour after that. The attending loved it, but I was like "That is NOT my job, that's YOURS." Of course I didn't say that :). I was lucky with nurses too cuz one of them would shout publically, "You're not to take that case, there are other people SUPPOSEDLY working here too!" hehehehe!

But I'm just venting. Most of my frustrating with peds was working with my co-workers, not the actual cases coming in. It's nice and chilled in our peds ED although it can get really hectic at times. Still, it's got a more uplifting feel than our adult ED, and I don't know why that is. Maybe because you can have a quicker flow and faster dispositions in peds. I really enjoyed playing with the kids and using little tricks to get them to respond to you. It's especially rewarding when they wrap their cute little arms around your legs to give you a hug afterwards. 

Then in September, I had CCU at one of our peripheral hospitals. That was pretty chill too with downtime during the day (most days). The only problem is that it's a long commute. At least 40 minutes in the car, about 2 hours by public transport. Fortunately I was able to grab a lift from a friend of mine (who was late more often than not, heh!) but I was getting up at 5:30 to be there for 7, and when I had to get public transport, I got up at 4:30 and wouldn't get home til 9. The first couple weeks were tough because I didn't really know my job description and didn't seem to be having any responsibility, plus learning an outdated computer system. But definitely the last two weeks I could see my input into the team and pre-empt orders, etc. I learned a bit, but I'm not sure how much was relevant to my own training. Some on pressure support, swan-ganz which i still need to read on, but what was really cool was learning how to do a bedside Echo. 

Anyway, back to ER at my home city hospital and I've got a fairly good schedule - mix of nights, peds, etc. And no getting up ass early and leaving really late! Hopefully I'll now have more time for gym and study. I just bought a new bike too so I can't wait to have a go in central park! 

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. 

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! 

And it begins....!

Today is June 30th, the last day of rest before the nervously anticipated universal first day of a physician's year. That sounds a bit too dramatic for how I actually feel, which is fairly calm. Definitely just completing a year of clinical work gives me some degree of confidence, as well as the fact that we're not really working our first two weeks (we have ER orientation). I think a couple of the others are nervous though. There's a few things I'm going to have to adjust to, but they're small - drug names, American units vs. metric, etc. But all in all, I'm mainly excited about embarking on the ER journey. Let's hope it's the right one!

The last two weeks have been quite busy. I landed on June 15th and stayed in cheap hotel, which was decent but a pain in the ass to lug all the luggage to. Organization with my program is a bit lacking, but hey, what's new? Anyway, I had a bit of a scare with the living situation, which got sorted. We live in heavily subsidized dorm accomodation directly across the hospital. It's convenient, but the rooms are quite small and you share a bathroom/kitchen. That's not great, but honestly...how much time do I really spend in either?

June 16th, a week of general orientation began, which was really boring. Signing all these papers to get registered with human resources, not understanding a single thing about tax papers, not understanding a single thing about signing up for benefits like retirement packages and insurance, etc. I mean, way to make doctors feel stupid. I should have gotten like an MBA or something before coming here! Anyway, it was really funny cuz all of us ER people are alike. We all skipped multiple things, and would find the whole ER table in the hospital doing other things. On the last day, there was this cultural competency session on for hours and I was like "are you actually serious?!" and skipped. Maybe that's what doing a clinical year did for me - made me better at not sitting through crap!

Last week, everyone was doing their courses (ACLS, PALS, etc.) but i've already done them so I got to go home and see the parents and pick up some of the stuff I'd shipped home. Caught up on movies and got to see the human bodies exhibit at the museum which has been globally popular and somewhat controversial. It was interesting, but since we've done anatomy, it was like "been there, done that" but I could see how "lay" people would find it really cool. The dissections were very clean and neat, must have taken months to get them that good. had a small nightmare trying to fly back to new york with my flight plan diverted like 3 times. Ended up landing in laguardia, which was awesome because we flew over central park (nice view!) and I think I spotted my hospital and apt. tower!

Have spent ooodles of money trying to make my room space-efficient. When I got here, the room was a dump. Dirty floor, crap in the sink...the first place I headed was to buy cleaning equipment. The furniture sucked - old metal rusting bed frame and desk, with a really cracked plastic mattress. Anyway, now I've bought this awesome futon bunk bed which is brilliant, a nice 22 inch flat screen tv, and rugs so I don't have to look at the floor. Of course, I swiffer wetjetted the floor a million times before putting the rugs down. I'm going to have the desk removed and just put in some nice shelves, and perhaps a laptop stand so I can work from my futon. Cable guy came and installed internet, so I've made the room wireless - no long cables. And I still have to install my fridge and microwave, bought a dvd recorder and going to get a printer! So glad I still have euro paychecks coming in!! I figure an investment is in order if I'm going to be here 3 years, and why not, if I've got the money?

Anyway, I can't wait for visitors, so if you're in the area, give me a shout!

Watch this space and I'll hopefully update the ER journey frequently...beginning tomorrow!

NO MORE SCUT!!!

Whether you're just beginning or internship or thanking god you've finished internship and moving on to senior positions, Good Luck! DOWN WITH SCUT! is all I have to say.

The last several weeks have been a whirlwind. It's weird to think that just two weekends ago, I was in Dublin, having some very boozy going-away celebrations. My very last call was June 3rd and for some funny reason, the American interns were all on together. Cheesy, but i took photos on call, just to remember what it was like. It's great not ever having to do call ever again, I absolutely hate all the inefficiency and incompentency shenanigans you have to deal with, and not to mention that call hours there are uncapped and admissions are uncapped. Can you tell I'm very happy not to have to repeat internship?!

Anyway, weather was lovely and I spent my last couple weekends in Dublin at rowing things and bbq's. Had a great time at Metro regatta in the sun, talking to loads of people I haven't seen in awhile and won't see in awhile. Then went out and had a fantastic rowing night out, that's something I'll really miss. Unluckily for me, met a hot boy, which is the typical leaving story, but cest la vie! Had a hungover bbq the next day, I love those spontaneous things, and Paulie did the typical man job of trying those disposable bbq's which didn't work. I had leftover burgers for 2 weeks! The next weekend, went up to Queens for the Queens vs. Trinity race, and was in the launch watching the races and had a fabulous time - it's great to enjoy the social rowing scene. Last bastion of British aristocracy and all.

My last weekend was a DULBC alumni reception (small) that was pleasant, bought way too much wine and cheese but who's complaining! And then dashed off to the SJH hospital ball for a last drunken medic night. Had a great time, but was definitely sad at the end and ended up bawling for a little while. Then dashed home, slept for 1.5 hours and then off to the airport to whisk away to NYC!

I had mixed feelings about coming. On one hand, I really wanted to get out of SJH, even though I really like that hospital. Enough was enough though. On the other hand, I really like european life and the way friendships are formed there, and I really didn't want to leave my close friends. Coming to NYC was the best thing for my career, but I was afraid that I wouldn't adjust well or like having to come back to US thinking and corniness. But now that I have, my wariness was unjustified and I'm having a great time. I really like it here and the people in my program seem great, and... NO MORE SCUT!!!! well...not as much anyway!

My last rotation of formal intern year is awesome. General Medicine with a super team that's really efficient. It's great - I'm busier than my last rotation and I get to leave earlier. We're usually always out by 5 and when we're not busy, we take turns who goes for half days. Have gotten a couple interesting cases (the most recent one of an infected fluid-filled emphysematous bulla in a crack cocaine user) and have a decent level of autonomy. I'm really glad I'm ending with a good one.



Call can be really brutal though so I'm soooo counting them down. There was a saturday in April that was absolutely horrendous, o2 desats all over the place with neither myself or my partner going to bed and staying late on sunday while the intern coming on was waiting for his locum partner. Yesterday was ok, got to bed at 3:30 after an aspiration pneumonia with bad desat and a DKA that wasn't picked up in the A&E. I then wasted the rest of this gorgeous day sleeping. I'm so glad I'm going into a 3 year program and don't have to repeat intern year!



I actually found myself at a loss for words last night when a nurse asked me, "Would it not be better for both of you to be carrying your own bleeps instead of switching?" I was like "No, because then both people would be up for 24+ hours with no break since we only take like 30 min for lunch and dinner instead of us swapping so that we can each get 4 hours of sleep." She really didn't understand it. I was like "Would YOU like to be working for 24-30 hours? would YOU like to work 2 of your mere 12 hour shifts back-to-back?" Maybe this is why doctors and nurses don't get along because some really lack logic or the ability to think critically. I'm going to get shot for saying that but I'm generally nice to everyone and this inability of people to think logically or outside their own box really annoys me. There are fantastic nurses out there who I really like but for every one of them, there's like 5 dumbass/lazy ones who boil your blood on a daily basis.



Anyway, the day job is great and the free time has let me get all my stuff ready for going to NY. The number of forms you have to fill out is unbelievable. And then you have to do all the stuff for NY medical licensing and when you're reading through one form then you figure out you have to apply for something else and it costs like a grand! And you have to keep going back to the medical school office for your diplomas/transcripts/deans letters/etc. Anyway, I think it's mainly all sorted now. Hopefully everything's all set!



So I leave June 15th and I've already had to say good bye to one of my best friends, which was sad and weird. She just fininshed medical school and is now galavanting through south america. It is strange moving away from people I see virtually every single day and I'm sure I'll be making a lot of long-distance phone calls. Hopefully coming back once or twice next year (obviously around rowing events!).

I matched!!

So around this time of year, messy medics go mad with fears / anticipation re: job security! But last week was Match week and 15000 US med students + several thousand foreign grads (US IMGs and FMGS alike) found out on St. Paddy's Day whether they matched into residency or not. Fortunately for me, I came out on the happy side, no worries about having to scramble! Heading to Metropolitan Hospital / NYMC in June to start my life as an Emergency Medicine doc. I was overjoyed, but I have to say the climax was taken away a little as I'd gotten clues and really positive emails from the program so I sort of knew in advance. It was the only EM program I interviewed at so I'm really thankful they gave me the chance - EM is fairly competitive at the moment with roughly 50% of non-US applicants matching.

So on Thursday when people found out which program we matched to, we went out for dinner at a gorgeous Indian restaurant (Jaipur, St. George's street) and met up with one of our friends/classmates who's interning in Australia (perth). Went to a pub afterwards to try to celebrate with the RCSI people who matched, but all of us except 1 faded really early.

It'll be really exciting moving to Manhattan, I think Metropolitan give us subsidized housing. I'm a little nervous cuz it'll be a big change and I won't know many people there, but it's only a short hop over the pond to visit my Irish mates. We're already planning visits. The ED department there is a lot different from the ones I did electives in as it's smaller and a bit more cramped, but we rotate through 4 hospitals so should see a really diverse patient pool. I haven't heard much about this program and the chief residents were quite positive about it, but of course they sort of have to be...it seems like a program which has opportunities for growth, and I like that it could be a place someone like me could have a positive impact on and vice versa. Plus, it's manhattan!!! Haven't heard from them yet but it's a holiday weekend ...can't wait to find out my schedules, etc.

I applied to A&E jobs here in Dublin too and got great feedback. I applied for the AE scheme in SJH, and while I didn't get it, I think I was the only intern who got an interview. I realized I was really junior to be even applying. I did however, get one of the two 6 month posts and the other guy is one who is two years my senior, so I was chuffed about it. They thought my experience was really advanced for my level of training (electives, ACLS and ATLS + PALS certs this year). I got interviews for the other 4 Dublin AE hospitals, but I turned two of them down and went to the St. Vincents scheme interview for the practice. And, i really love my suit! (hehe) . So it'll be awkward rejecting my job offer here as I already told HR I was going to accept, but c'est la vie.

It comes at a great time because all of us are starting to get really really tired of being interns. I don't know of a single one of us who's really enjoying the job right now, we want our lives to start and call just sucks.

Right now I'm nearly finished with my Medicine for the Elderly (geriatrics) rotation and I've really not liked it. I'm more a surgery person anyway, but this job been absolutely mind-rotting. I'm redundant...there's no real reason why my team needs me, there's really no individual thought as there was on surgery, no independence and NO TEACHING! I've learned absolutely ZILCH on this rotation, although I have gotten a little more familiar with some drugs.

Med El call is so irritating because it's more frequent than usual and although it's more relaxed work-wise, I don't find myself getting any more sleep. Your sleep is so disturbed by the nurses calling you for every stupid little thing because except for the acute ward, the nurses in the rehab/long stay wards aren't accustomed to handling any even minor medical issue or prioritizing. You know, i really don't give a damn that someone's bp is 150/90 at 3 am. They are completely inflexible and get so nervous every time they think their protocol isn't going to be followed. You end up getting bleeped hourly and get very disturbed sleep, and I then am kept awake because I'm fuming. And then on weekends, you carry the cardiac arrest bleep and each time I'm on the weekend, I get a cardiac arrest at like 4 am and then can't go back to sleep cuz you can hear everything in the shithole that's our doctor's res. And to top it off, these acute old people have poor access and are really difficult to cannulate or get bloods off. Anyway, call turns the sweetest people into bitches on wheels and everyone spends the whole time so angry. It's exhausting and no one likes feeling that way on a regular basis. Anyway, rant over.

I'm starting in general medicine 1st week of April, which will be busier but I'm looking forward to it and hoping I'll learn something. I'm going to start studying again for USMLE Step 3, but it won't be really serious studying yet - I just want to refresh the info that i've lost. But as I'm "in recovery" today, perhaps I'll start tomorrow :).

Summary of the rest of 2007

Haven't posted in a long time - that's what being an intern does to you...sucks up your time and your life. But hey, the money's alright!!

So since the last post, I completed my surgical rotations of my intern year. Orthopaedics in St. James's and General Surgery in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway (Portiuncula Hospital) . I am definitely a surgery person. I like the independence and responsibility given to junior staff, and the no-nonsense direct approach to stuff.

But anyway, Orthopaedics was a bit mad. Ortho wards are like human zoos ... half of the patients are old folks who go nuts on the analgesia and anaesthetic meds. Another quarter are the drunks and druggies who demand a lot of attention. And the other quarter are those suffering from MOLS (miserable old lady syndrome) who block beds while you wait for suitable nursing homes for them. I came to work one day and found a whole ward dancing in each other's arms to some imaginary music which one of the patients had dreamed up. We were like..."what the hell?!?!" but hey, they were happy and weren't screaming like usual so we let them.

I loved Ortho. My consultants and registrars were awesome. The only thing I hate dealing with are the social issues, but other than that...i like tools, I like the in-and-out of patients, and I like the gratification you get from getting them back on their feet. A couple patients gave me presents...which was really nice and touching. Sure, there were a couple awful days when I questioned my sanity in choosing to become a doctor, but on the whole, I loved it. The worst day for me was in my first week, when there was a difficult case we had post-bilateral calcaneal fractures. Part of a vac dressing had adhered to a portion of the posterior tibial artery which sheared when his dressing was changed. Blood and screaming everywhere, which then set off all the other patients screaming, then the mother came in and started screaming at everyone about lawsuits and shit like that, and meanwhile the patient was taken to theatre like 3 times and had maxed out on pain meds because the tolerance was quite high (a nurse actually found some unprescribed "medications" in his drawer, if you get what i mean...) . and then right after the operation this patient goes for a smoke. GD it. That was a hairy day. And other awful day was only awful (regarding the same patient) because I was post-call and a miscommunication between the nursing staff, plastics and myself meant that I was there til 8 pm post-call. That was the closest I came to losing my temper at a nurse.

The thing that made SJH surgery hell was call. I hate call with a passion. Here, there are still no capped call hours. I've been working for 38 hours with no sleep before. My avg # of hours during Ortho was 85 hrs. per week...one week, I reached 102. Call is so irritating and you get called for all this stupid shit. I was absolutely furious at one of the most stupid ones I've gotten. I got urgently serial bleeped to review a patient for thyrotoxic crisis. So I rush up from A&E thinking "oh crap, what dose of beta blocker, which one, etc." and find the patient sitting in bed, reading a magazine. His only complaint was swollen hands (note: it was warm in the room, as it was summer). No tremors, no jitteriness, no feeling unwell whatsover. So I asked the nurse, "why did you call me to review this patient?" Her reply: "well, I thought swollen hands were part of a thyroid problem. Me: "Um... no." Her: "Well, could it be a paracetamol overdose or something?" Me: "Um...he's on 1g qds, which is normal. Also, you must have been a nurse for 20 years. In those 20 years, have you ever seen swollen hands from paracetamol." Her: "Umm..." Me: "Don't call me again." (and I was also thinking, "Go back to nursing school.") which is very mean of me, but come on.

Anyway, then moved to Portiuncula Hospital for General Surgery. At first I really didn't like it because it's quite remote, and lonely. But I made fast friends with the two UCD interns that were there, and we managed to have some fun. The best thing about it was that call was so easy compared to the big Dublin hospitals. the whole surgical population equaled one ward of SJH. Our bleeps worked from home so we could watch tv or clean up the house while doing rounds, and only got called maybe 3 or 4 times to do stuff. The nurses were fun too, but it's quite different there in that the nurses really run the hospitals since the doctors change every 6 months or so. My Consultant was lovely, and I got along with my team. I didn't ever go into theatre because I wasn't too interested in gen surg (not an abdomen person), and had other stuff to do (applying to ERAS, etc.) but it was interesting to go to a peripheral hospital.

In the first two weeks of December, I went back home to do interviews. I applied mainly for EM so had an interview in NY, then a prelim interview in NY as well, then a TY interview in Georgia. My number of interviews isn't great statistically, so I'm skeptical about Matching. But we shall see I guess. I interviewed at Metropolitan for EM, and I really liked it. But they treat interviews like informal chats sometimes, and everyone gets along well so it's hard to gauge where you stand.

I ended the year by being on call Christmas and stephen's days. Christmas day was grand (I was invited over to the main gynecologist's house for dinner because I knew his daughter, who's a physio there) and it was lovely. It only got really busy at like 11:30 pm and I didn't leave til 1 am, and then Stephen's day was busy but that's ok. Then I got like 6 days off afterwards because the teams treat the Christmas season as every day on call.

so for New Years, I went up to Letterkenny (Northwest Ireland) to visit a good friend of mine for a couple days, and it was absolutely lovely. She's an Olympic hopeful so spent a couple hours in the gym to kickstart my year off well (after a night of getting absolutely hammered), and her parents are lovely too. They treated us to this massive carvery for dinner one day and stuffed ourselves, and then went for a really nice drive to see some scenery. We didn't go out New Years Eve because we wanted to start this year off right, this being a big year for her, and I thought that we could go get smashed any night, but there are very few times we can actually just spend the night relaxing by a fire. It was a brilliant New Years :)

The world's a more disturbing place...

I'm getting more scared by some of the young patients I'm seeing, who at 10 years old are like 88 kilos. Young girls. That's like 20 kilos more than I weigh. What the hell? I wonder what it's going to take to make kids (and their parents) change. It's sort of analogous the increasing interest in hybrid cars. It took petrol prices to shoot through the roof before people started considering them. Yeah, environmental concern was part of it...but not the primary concern. What's going to make measures to be put in place in schools/families to decrease the chances of being squashed by someone decades younger than you?

And, I had a patient the other day who required me to write on her school note that she was allowed to drink a bottle of water at school. I was like...what?! Apparently, the school won't let any of them carry bottled water because they're afraid kids will bring and drink alcohol in school! That's nuts! I mean, I'm sure they could...but wouldn't it be obvious picking out the complete smashed kid? and smell it? And wouldn't it be really dangerous for kids not to have adequate hydration? Man, things have really changed from when I was in high school...and that wasn't that long ago!

Finally! I'm nearly done!! (with med school)

The last time I posted, I'd just finished Step 2 CK. It didn't go as well as I wanted, but passed anyway. So that's my ECFMG certification stuff done. I'm not that happy with how I've done academically during med school, but considering all the stuff I've been able to do apart from medicine, I'm fairly happy with the life experiences I've gotten from studying abroad in Ireland. I'll go more into specific pros and cons later.

The exams were nerve-wracking as we expected. The medicine and surgery papers were fair (except the surgery MCQ was a bit all over the place and definitely not very well organized). The day between the med and surg papers, I found out about a job opening in the US and given the uncertainty of getting a job in Ireland this year, I spent the whole day getting ready and faxing application materials, so didn't start cramming surg until 6 pm ! Definitely not good preparation, but I figured I had to take a shot at this opening, even if it was a long shot.

Then the day after the surgery paper, I was cycling a friend's racer to meet a couple friends for lunch near the hospital. My front wheel clipped and got stuck in the tram tracks, and I went flying. Must have landed under an out-stretched shoulder cuz I dislocated my left shoulder. Being in front of the hospital, I walked to the Emergency Department and was seen fairly quickly (it was quiet). It hurt like hell...I knew dislocated shoulders were supposed to be really painful, but I was really surprised at how much it actually did hurt (when the meds wore off). So then I had to be in a sling for the next 3 weeks - didn't take pain meds cuz they made me really sleepy, and then the diclofenac they prescribed made me quite ill, so stopped taking that. My friends took care of me that weekend though ;). Healing is really slow...nearly 6 weeks on, and I still can't extend my arm to its full range of movement. Abduction's back though!

The following Monday I had a psych paper, which was ok... I wish I'd done more studying for it because I could have done quite well on it. Studying was basically non-existant because the pain meds knocked me out or I was sick from meds. I learned my lesson! Then had a week off before the clinicals. The orals were strange given I only had one arm and couldn't do some of the physical exams....so I got asked some very weird questions instead. Can't say I'm the most loquacious... I wasn't really happy with the long cases, but the shorts in medicine went well. Managed to get through them fairly un-traumatically, one hand and all, and then had an agonizing wait to see if we got Dublin internships or not. After the school playing us around a bit, the postings finally came out 5 days late and fortunately I got a job! Unfortunately, 16 of my class didn't...I hope they've all found suitable alternatives that they're happy with. This whole situation is absolutely ridiculous.

Went straight from finding out about job postings to Kerry to spend with two of my best friends (both rowers, both in medicine) and it was absolutely beautiful. 3 days of doing nothing except enjoy the gorgeous sun on the beach. Anna took us to places she grew up with during childhood, with some stunning spots that have and will remain untouched. Some of the area is very mountainous so can't really be habitable, and the water lying between the mountains is therefore pure. The views were amazing and it made me fall in love with Ireland again (the past couple years have seriously tried my enthusiasm for the place). But I think it's back :).

Then the 2nd week of May was a hectic one, spent searching apartments in the Islandbridge area for something suitable. As all my classmates were away on holiday and I wasn't really keen on sharing (8-9 years in dorms is quite enough, thank you!), landed myself a sweet little place right next to the boathouse (my 2nd home!) in a lovely complex. Quiet, young area and professional area, with a little fountain and garden...expensive but worth it. Especially after some of the infested ones I visited during my search!

That weekend, I was off to London - sent by the IARU (rowing union) to attend a FISA classification workshop for adaptive (disabled) rowers and it was really useful. Once my documentation's turned in, I'll be the first and only medical and technical rowing classifier in Ireland for awhile, until they send more to be classified. Basically, I'll be officially classifying the athletes into boat categories to optimize their rowing abilities. It's a great project to be involved with helping the IARU to set up a Paralympic team, now that rowing is part of the Paralympic games. And from a medical point of view, the neurological conditions the athletes present with can be very interesting...complete or partial transections, amputations, polio, etc.

A few days later, I was back home to do an elective in Pediatric Emergency Medicine in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. After a flight back from hell (I had to spend a night on the airport floor and it was Newark, for god's sake) I had a couple days to become unjetlagged and catch up on movies. I've completed 2 weeks of the elective and now have my last 4 days (yay!). To be honest, I haven't enjoyed this rotation as much as my November one at CCF - I liked CCF's structure a bit better, as it can be over-staffed and over-structured here. Also, I think I'm more of a fan of adult medicine versus pediatric medicine. I've found it hard to get to know the attendings because there's not as much contact with them as I had at CCF, so trying to ask for a letter might be awkward. And this whole precepting to fellows who then precept to the attending thing gets kind of annoying. Plus, there's no computer charting at our level anyway, which I don't really like. On the flip side, the kids can be really cute! This elective hasn't deterred my interest in EM any, and overall it's a good experience - I've rediscovered my weak points and have learned not to make assumptions (even though my assumptions are usually right. Better to be completely thorough!). I just feeling "meh" about this rotation has partly to do with me being at the end of my med ed tether and just wanting a break for awhile.

I go back on Friday, and when I land I go straight to Belfast to try to catch my gals' race (Lomac Tiles against Queens University is always very fun!), back down to a 21st, and then to Castleconnell for an adaptive rowing meeting the next day. A couple days to fix up my apartment and set up utilities, then mom's coming for graduation (June 15th, yay!). Busy busy busy! I'll be with my friends again! YAYAY!