It's a beautiful thing when...
You've only gotten one page in the past 2 days
You open the online consult request list and it's empty
You go home at the end of the day and have Thai food with your girlfriend.
It's only been two days, but I'm worried that this rotation has been almost a little too chill. I don't want to get soft. I'm not sure it really matters though. I do love being an OB resident sometimes - even though it sucks most of the time. It sucks when it's busy; it sucks when it's not busy. It's also really cool when it's not busy - and really cool when it's busy. Start placing your bets on whether or not I'm going to stay. I'm not sure myself.
I didn't like it when they decided to do it, and I don't like it now. Sometime in the next few days, I'll tell the story. The lesson of the story will be this: better to potentially put someone at risk in the future than to certainly put someone at risk in the present. We induced a lady at 35 weeks who had a h/o preeclampsia in previous pregnancies, h/o IUFD and worsening proteinuria at her clinic visits (4+). She had normal blood pressures, normal labs and a 24 hr urine recorded 3 weeks ago of 125g. The fear was that if we sent her for another 24 hr urine, she wouldn't follow up. I'll tell the story. You decide what you think of the results.
Anyone remember Saved By the Bell? That teen citcom that used to be mixed in with your Saturday morning cartoons? This was back This was back when the word 'cartoon' meant something much more specific. Smurf's, Fragle Rock, Duck Tales - that was all a cartoon was in those days and all a cartoon ever endeavored to be. But I digress. The point is, I used to LOVE Saved By the Bell. It used to be one of the highlights of my week. I had not seen an episode in over a decade and now, every weekday morning, cruel irony decides to slap me upside the head with my own nostalgia. I'm on night float these days. My shift ends at 8am, or as soon as I get all my work done following sign-out, which is at 7am. This means that at 6am, I'm rounding on the post-partum patients and I'll be damned if 8 or 9 out of 10 aren't tuned to TBS where they now show Saved By the Bell reruns at 6am. How much more would I rather be watching Saved By the Bell than rounding on my post-partum patients, well, only A HELL OF A LOT MORE!
Residency is, so far just what I thought it would be. That is to say, it is unspeakably awful but 1,000x better than being a medical student.
If that same little anecdote is in my last entry, then I am truly going mad.
Residency is, so far, pretty much what I expected - umspeakably awful yet 100x better than being a med student. I worked 92 hours my first week. I suppose if I can do it for one week, I can do it for 200 odd more weeks. The other residents are very nice - they've been extremely helpful. And, as much of a fuck-up as I feel like I've been so far, it seems like the other interns are struggling just as much as I to keep our heads above water.
