Random recent events
I'm supposed to be studying for a stupid exam I don't want to take so I may as well post some random recent events, right?
6/7: My first trip on the Portland Spirit! The OHSU Family Medicine Department hosted a dinner cruise for the last year's donors and invited another student and I to join them. It was a delicious dinner, a fun time watching the shore go by. I sat across from our Dept Chairman, trying not to be nervous while making small talk, and realized for the first time that it was THEY who were courting ME. Oh the power of being in, rather than applying to, medical school.
6/8: Thus began my first fourth-year rotation, a month spent in the Portland Providence Intensive Care Unit. It was an intense month, which deserves its own reminiscence elsewhere. I enjoyed it very much--I worked with an awesome senior resident (shout out to Nicole!) and 4 fabulous interns who made all the difference. It had highs--attending who thought I was an intern, carrying double my caseload when new interns started, voodoo donuts on saturdays, and carrying people through severe illness--but it had extreme lows...several of my patients died. Worse, some of them landed themselves in the ICU through heartbreaking circumstances that, as their story unfolded, haunted me for days. I don't know how intensivists do it, but I assure you no number of voodoo donuts would make it worth it for me.
6/27: My only ICU overnight call during my ICU rotation. It was exhausting and long, though I stayed remarkably well energized throughout by virtue of a steady stream of chocolate and tea. The new interns had just started so I ended up carrying 4 patients overnight while my R3 carried the other 9. Lots of things go wrong on overnight call. The wonderful part of my ICU rotation is that I really felt part of the team--when nurses needed something they came to me, not to my residents. The bad part of that is being on overnight call while your R3 is sequestered in a room placing a line for over an hour, and the rest of the patients still need orders, lines, clarifications and so on. As a student you have no power to write orders, so I felt helpless to fix simple problems (and grateful I couldn't "fix" the complicated ones).
6/28: Post-call, sleep-deprived and punchdrunk, inevitability drove me up to Seattle to hang w/
silentclarity on his brew day with a couple friends. I'm not sure I was coherent, but at least inevitability picked me up a beloved chai on the way up so I was caffinating by the time we arrived. We stayed for delish BBQ (had my first buffalo burger, yum!) and stayed overnight at a nearby hotel.
silentclarity indulged us by driving us down to Pike market in the morning before we headed home. PS: The other home-brew we drank that day was AWESOME.
7/4: The fourth! We celebrated America by overheating on the pitch n putt golf course, and changing our plans to specifically avoid fireworks and instead eat snacks at Pied Cow. I am pleased to say I was able to pitch the golfball furthest of our group in a single hole, aided by elevation and good luck. This also marked the beginning of my much anticipated, well deserved month-long vacation. Patriotism, what?
7/14: Bastille day, for any francophiles. I resumed my hunt for a wedding dress. I have a hard time finding a wedding dress I like because I neither desire to look like a frosted cake nor do I like lace, heavy beading, or most strapless dresses. I tracked down the Portland area stores carrying dresses from a designer I like and made an appt. While describing my heart's desire, using foreign-sounding words like "sheath" "bias" and "no poofiness, please," the very helpful sales lady summed it up as "well if you want to wear a night gown, this one works." She proceeded to chastise me for not wanting to wear a ballgown, to say "well perhaps this lace is too formal for you," and contradict every opinion I posited. She finished by bringing a mermaid cut puffy monstrosity and when I tried it on, commented "well sometimes you go shopping for a volkswagon and buy a cadillac, honey." Later, over my irritated sniveling at lunch, inevitability recruited his mother's help, and for all my uncertainties and difficulty describing what I want to salespeople, she summed up what I described very well in about 30 seconds and sent me a photo to boot. I essentially want Carolyn Bassette's wedding dress.
Coming up next: Going to LA for that "stupid exam" I referenced above. It's a series of mock-patient interview to essentially prove I have human interpersonal skills, english language proficiency, and oh by the way to net the NBME my $1500 fee. It's not really the kind of test you study for anyway, but I have my First Aid Review book cracked next to me. However, we're making a vacation out of it so I will also get to hang out with gina ,
alex_victory , and rasputin at Magic Castle, Disneyland, a water park, and my first Rocky Horror Picture Show. Woot!
6/7: My first trip on the Portland Spirit! The OHSU Family Medicine Department hosted a dinner cruise for the last year's donors and invited another student and I to join them. It was a delicious dinner, a fun time watching the shore go by. I sat across from our Dept Chairman, trying not to be nervous while making small talk, and realized for the first time that it was THEY who were courting ME. Oh the power of being in, rather than applying to, medical school.
6/8: Thus began my first fourth-year rotation, a month spent in the Portland Providence Intensive Care Unit. It was an intense month, which deserves its own reminiscence elsewhere. I enjoyed it very much--I worked with an awesome senior resident (shout out to Nicole!) and 4 fabulous interns who made all the difference. It had highs--attending who thought I was an intern, carrying double my caseload when new interns started, voodoo donuts on saturdays, and carrying people through severe illness--but it had extreme lows...several of my patients died. Worse, some of them landed themselves in the ICU through heartbreaking circumstances that, as their story unfolded, haunted me for days. I don't know how intensivists do it, but I assure you no number of voodoo donuts would make it worth it for me.
6/27: My only ICU overnight call during my ICU rotation. It was exhausting and long, though I stayed remarkably well energized throughout by virtue of a steady stream of chocolate and tea. The new interns had just started so I ended up carrying 4 patients overnight while my R3 carried the other 9. Lots of things go wrong on overnight call. The wonderful part of my ICU rotation is that I really felt part of the team--when nurses needed something they came to me, not to my residents. The bad part of that is being on overnight call while your R3 is sequestered in a room placing a line for over an hour, and the rest of the patients still need orders, lines, clarifications and so on. As a student you have no power to write orders, so I felt helpless to fix simple problems (and grateful I couldn't "fix" the complicated ones).
6/28: Post-call, sleep-deprived and punchdrunk, inevitability drove me up to Seattle to hang w/
silentclarity on his brew day with a couple friends. I'm not sure I was coherent, but at least inevitability picked me up a beloved chai on the way up so I was caffinating by the time we arrived. We stayed for delish BBQ (had my first buffalo burger, yum!) and stayed overnight at a nearby hotel.
silentclarity indulged us by driving us down to Pike market in the morning before we headed home. PS: The other home-brew we drank that day was AWESOME.
7/4: The fourth! We celebrated America by overheating on the pitch n putt golf course, and changing our plans to specifically avoid fireworks and instead eat snacks at Pied Cow. I am pleased to say I was able to pitch the golfball furthest of our group in a single hole, aided by elevation and good luck. This also marked the beginning of my much anticipated, well deserved month-long vacation. Patriotism, what?
7/14: Bastille day, for any francophiles. I resumed my hunt for a wedding dress. I have a hard time finding a wedding dress I like because I neither desire to look like a frosted cake nor do I like lace, heavy beading, or most strapless dresses. I tracked down the Portland area stores carrying dresses from a designer I like and made an appt. While describing my heart's desire, using foreign-sounding words like "sheath" "bias" and "no poofiness, please," the very helpful sales lady summed it up as "well if you want to wear a night gown, this one works." She proceeded to chastise me for not wanting to wear a ballgown, to say "well perhaps this lace is too formal for you," and contradict every opinion I posited. She finished by bringing a mermaid cut puffy monstrosity and when I tried it on, commented "well sometimes you go shopping for a volkswagon and buy a cadillac, honey." Later, over my irritated sniveling at lunch, inevitability recruited his mother's help, and for all my uncertainties and difficulty describing what I want to salespeople, she summed up what I described very well in about 30 seconds and sent me a photo to boot. I essentially want Carolyn Bassette's wedding dress.
Coming up next: Going to LA for that "stupid exam" I referenced above. It's a series of mock-patient interview to essentially prove I have human interpersonal skills, english language proficiency, and oh by the way to net the NBME my $1500 fee. It's not really the kind of test you study for anyway, but I have my First Aid Review book cracked next to me. However, we're making a vacation out of it so I will also get to hang out with gina ,
alex_victory , and rasputin at Magic Castle, Disneyland, a water park, and my first Rocky Horror Picture Show. Woot!