A Random Header Image
1st October 2007

sllllloooooowwwwww

It’s going to be a long month two long months. Rounds today lasted 6 hours. 6 hours to see 8 patients. No discharges. I didn’t get notes in the chart until 5 pm. I didn’t even have my morning orders written until 5 pm. Oh, and did I mention that I know nothing about my patients…why they’re there, what kind of strokes they had, what kind of interventions, and what kind of work-up they had had. No clue. I looked like an incompetent moron (the intern who’s gorgeous, btw, asked me if I was post-call. He was, and didn’t act it at all), which got worse when my attending started pimping me on differential diagnoses of syndromes that I’ve never heard of. I’ve got families demanding updates on when their loved one is going to be discharged (no clue, sorry), juggling showdowns between dueling services (the neurosurg attending’s opinion of me is even lower, but I don’t care as long as he does something surgery-like), and trying to find social workers and case managers to see if I can’t get somebody home tomorrow. It made for a very, very long day.

But my attending does one of the best neuro exams I’ve ever seen and he’s unbelievably brilliant (and is starting to change my opinion that neuro docs don’t know much about general medicine) and wow, I wanna be just like him.

I’m on call tomorrow, where the chances of me even getting 5 minutes of sleep are pretty slim.

Oh, and I really need a better reflex hammer.

*sets alarm for 5 am*
*crawls into bed*

posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

9th September 2007

they do not pay me enough

I hate the neurology department. I am so close to just walking up to them and just quitting, because it’s been a long time since I enjoyed myself and I’m sick and tired of the laziness of the senior residents. The only part of neurology that I like is the neurocritical care and I can do just plan critical care from the medicine side and be done almost 3 years earlier.

“If a senior is delegated intern work from another junior resident because of a lack of their in-efficiency or work-ethic then perhaps we should re-evaluate who we are accepting into our program.”

Bastards.

posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

18th August 2005

Flip the coin

Heads you lose. Tails they win.

I had a mini-breakdown today.

Not a major one–there were only a few tears and just a little bit of alkalosis lightheadedness from hyperventilating–nothing that a bowl of ice cream and a evening spent with my favorite doctor, Hawkeye Pierce, couldn’t fix, but it’s the sign of “things to come.”

And all because I have no idea what I’m doing with my life–and this feeling of dread that I’m messing everything up.

I went to the school today–to change my schedule so that I’m doing my Sub-intership in Internal medicine in October, instead of January like I had originally planned, and to talk to the neurology coordinator so that I could figure out what exactly I’m doing for my rotation in 10 days.

I got my schedule fixed–but to change it like I did meant that I’d be doing my rotation at a different hospital than where I had hoped–which means the letters of recommendation that I could get won’t be as good because they don’t have the necessary “prestige” and name recognition.

The neurology person wasn’t there, so before heading out, I went to our student lounge to check mail and email. A notice in my inbox informed that my registration had been processed and I was now $100 cheaper and able to complete the Neurology match.

I’m not even sure if I want to Neurology anymore. And I don’t know why. I don’t know if it is fears that are choking me, because four months ago, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. It could be the acrid “great enthusiasm, worked on weekends, interested in the field” evaluation that I got from my attending professor–the same attending that I am to meekly beg for a letter of recommendation. Or the fact that while everybody I worked with in internal medicine are turning circles around me, trying to convince me that that is the field I want to be in, I’ve just received indifference from the neuro folks. “Oh you like neurology. Oh, that’s interesting.” Or have I just forgotten how much neuro fit me–how much it excited me, because it’s been almost a year since I did the rotation.

I liked my internal med rotations a lot. At first, I blamed that on my extremely cute doctor (who is still very cute and apparently still single. So why do I feel like a junior high student with a crush on her teacher??), but the second time around that was not the case, and I still liked it. But do I like it as a career? Or am I considering it because getting letters of recommendation won’t be quite as painful from them.

I hate waffling. I hate this sick feeling in my gut that tells me that time is running out and the decision needs to be made. If I just flipped the coin, would I feel better?

posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

24th November 2004

An M.D. in the making

Because I haven’t updated on my life forever, I owe a catch-up journal.

Since we last (truly) saw Julia, she was in the midst of her neurosurgery block, wondering what in the world she had gotten herself into. The hours were long, she limped home every night, and nary a resident acknowledged her existence. I fear many night, she cried herself to sleep, as the sleep-deprivation added to the stress. But, luckily that rotation only last two weeks, and by the end, she had made friends with two residents (one, very very cute, but rather too crass for her taste) and had impressed the attendings with random knowledge about a genetic disease that she knows all too well from personal experience. In fact, she had so much fun, that she almost convinced herself that maybe she could do surgery for the rest of her life, and never seen the sun for the next 8 years and have no personal life. Well maybe not quite. However, time goes by (…you’re older than you ever were and now you’re even older, and now you’re even older… and even two long 5-hours-of-sleep-per-night weeks end, and we all must move on.

Our heroine, as you remember, managed to wheedle/cry/whine her way into neurology rotation. She had had inklings since the previous year, when none of her classes had intrigued her quite as much as the study of the brain did (I hear that she actually spent 6 hours a day studying–even when there wasn’t a test the next day!), that perhaps a career in neurology might be nice, and while she was determined to keep an open mind when approaching her rotations, that little niggle of a thought was always there. Radiology was boring–except when she studied brain MRIs. Surgery, dreadful on the feet–but the cases were cool.

So needless to say, she approached the neurology clerkship with more than a hint of excitement.

Two days into it, she had found her calling. She tells me that she loves being with the patients and her neuro exam, while still jerky (and yes, she still forgets to check eye movements), is improving and she can’t wait for clinic each morning, and, yes, the rumor is true, she stayed late on her birthday because she *wanted* to learn more about multiple sclerosis.

Of course, it still is too early to call–she has been known to be mighty fickle at the last moment, but you may be talking to a future neurologist here!


A big thanks and snuggles to my flist for their birthday greetings! *hugs* You are all fabulous, and every day I am thankful for the chance of knowing you and claiming you as friends.

posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

21st November 2004

If at first you don’t succeed…

…Try breaking down and crying!

Remember this post

Apparently sobbing about how your life is ruined works better than calm, rational explanations.

I got my Neurology rotation!! And I start tomorrow! I am sooo excited.

And yes, I survived neurosurgery and am much looking forward to sleeping in until 6.

Ta for now!

posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

  • Julia’s Journal

  • Just an ordinary girl.
  • Monthly Calendar

  • March 2024
    S M T W T F S
     12
    3456789
    10111213141516
    17181920212223
    24252627282930
    31  
  • Archives

  • RSS Red Head Snippet

    • Books read October-December 01/01/2024
      My goal was to read 120 books this year. I just finished number 129. (Some of these I reviewed as part of my WWW posts). October: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I had high expectations for this book, as it had been so praised, and I felt let down by it. Still enjoyable, […]