Pediatric Pulmonology

I'm so happy to be back in the world of pediatrics!  I didn't realize how much I missed working with children until returning to the pediatric unit after a month of surgery.  Don't get me wrong, I like adults, but I love working with children.  They are so full of life, they are little fighters and shockingly, they never seem to feel sorry for themselves (unlike many adults, including myself).  I just like the atmosphere of pediatrics--I feel like it is, for the most part, more positive than other areas of medicine.

I had a couple cute kids this week.  There is a little girl, about 10 months old, who has been admitted for a month due to a bad infection.  She was looking great and got to go home (she was admitted for so long for intensive antibiotic therapy).  Whenever we rounded on her, she would dance, give the residents hugs and apparently she learned how to say "bye-bye" while in the hospital.  Now if I had the infection she did, I'd be grateful that I was getting better and would be okay, but I doubt I'd be dancing when the doctors came to check on me.

I really like the attending I am working with this month.  She is super smart and really well rounded.  I think I am going to learn a ton about pediatric pulmonary.  I have to do a big presentation for this rotation, which I started this week.  I chose to do my presentation on asthma because it is so common and such a bread and butter area of pediatric medicine.  However, now I wish that I would have picked something like hyaline membrane disease of the newborn because I don't know as much about it as I do about asthma.  Nonetheless, asthma is a much more common and studying it in depth will prove to be beneficial to me in the future.

Dinner and Baking

I had a three day weekend since I ended my surgery elective on Thursday.  I really wanted to do some baking and cooking because I find it so relaxing.  So before going to the gym today, I made some cinnamon rolls.  I really wanted chili and cinnamon rolls for dinner a few weeks ago so I found a recipe online: they were amazing! I asked Farley if he wanted them again and he said "YES!"  So, since I was in a baking mood, I made them, a beef roast and a salad with craisins, low-fat feta, caramelized walnuts and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.  Anyway, everything turned out great, so I thought I'd post a couple pictures.  If medical school doesn't work out, I can always go to culinary school.

Above: The cinnamon rolls (with walnuts) right out of the oven, before I added the frosting.
Below: My dinner plate.  I'm a lucky gal!

Macy's Flower Show

This week Farley and I went out and about New York.  We went into Macy's because I have a gift certificate (I have been keeping my eye on a dress....I am waiting for it to go on sale, but it hasn't yet).  When we walked into the Herald Square Macy's we got a surprise: The Macy's Flower Show.  The flowers were so beautiful that they looked like they were artificial.  However, the whole first floor (and floor 1.5, which is open to the first floor and that partially looks down on the handbags, makeup and fine jewelry).  It smelt so wonderful in the store.  I wish I could bottle it so you could smell it as you read this post.  Here are a couple pictures.  I took them on my iPhone, so they are not as high of quality as my digital camera, but I think you can get the idea of what the Macy's Flower Show is like.

Surgery Elective is finished!!

After completing my elective in surgery, I think I can say without a doubt that I will not be a surgeon when I grow up.  I finished up my last day on Thursday, March 31st.  I am so relieved to be done with the rotation.  It just isn't the area of medicine that I want to practice in and I am happy to be heading back to pediatrics on Monday.

26-hour call

The ACGME rules are changing this July and interns will no longer be allowed to work more than 16 hours.  I'm not sure of all of the particulars of the rule change, but I know that at least as an intern (and I think as a resident), I won't be asked to take call for 24 hours.  But currently, I am.

I do okay being up for about 20 hours, but then I just get so tired.  I know that there is debate as to whether or not the limitations on residents is a good or bad thing with questions surrounding whether or not it is safer for patients and do we need to extend the years of residency training because of the limitations on hours.  I think the arguments for both sides of regulation are compelling and it is beyond my pay-grade to decide what rules and regulations are best for training of residents.

Nonetheless, this Friday I was on-call from 7am until about 9am on Saturday (yes, that is 26 hours).  As I was working on notes at 2am, I was wondering if I would have been tough enough to go to medical school twenty years ago.  They don't make doctors like they used to.  I've talked to doctors who said during residency they started their shifts at 6am on Friday morning and got off at Monday afternoon.  Obviously, they got to sleep in the hospital, but from what I can tell no one sleeps too much when they are on call.  I don't think I am that tough, but then again you never know what you can do until you try.

When I was working on notes at 2am Saturday morning, a nurse came up to me and asked how long I'd been there.  I said I arrived at 7am, but I woke up about 5:15am and he told me I really needed to try and sleep before going home because he was worried I wouldn't make it home okay.  I did manage to sleep for 45-60 minutes, which was surprisingly refreshing.  I am fortunate that I take the train rather than drive, because I know I could not have safely driven myself home.  I was capable of staying alert and awake for the train ride, but that is a different level of alert and awake than driving a car is.

I think the worse part of the overnight call is that I am so tired, but by the time I get home, I wake up again and then wonder if I should just go about my day.  Usually I come home, take a shower, eat something and force myself to bed, even though I have a second-wind by then.  Then generally, I sleep soundly until the early evening and I get up for a few hours then go back to bed (to try and keep my schedule on track).  I didn't sleep as well yesterday as I usually do, but I think it is because it was so sunny and beautiful in New York and the light was pouring into my room.  I really wanted to be outside taking a walk and enjoying the spring-like day, but I knew I had to stay in bed because my head was pounding and my body ached.

I have two more 24-hour calls to do in this surgery elective.  I really don't mind the work, but about 2am or 3am, I am so tired that just want it over with.  There have been a few nights, when other students have been on call, that have had multiple emergency surgeries and other major problems.  The two 24-hour calls that I have had this month, have been busy, but there have been no major emergencies.  I hope that my next two 24-hours calls will be relatively painless without any major emergencies.

Dinner Date

I was on call last Sunday and I will be on call next Friday, so Farley and I went out on a date this weekend.  I have been trying to get him to go to Max Brenner for months and we finally went.  He has been giving me a hard time about going there, but after we went out shopping on Saturday we were in the area.  There was only a 20-25 minute wait and he agreed to stay.  After a couple minutes, a waiter was carrying a giant hamburger and Farley was a bit more excited to be at Max Brenner.  We ordered and had a great dinner, but you don't really go to Max Brenner for dinner: you go for dessert.  We were debating what to order, but Farley wanted to try one of the chocolate drinks, "Suckao."  The Suckao is super intense hot chocolate.  The cup is  sitting over a candle with some warm milk and you melt chocolate chunks into the milk.  It is a cross between a fondue and hot chocolate--it was too much for me so I decided to get a milk chocolate hot chocolate.  It was probably the best hot chocolate, other than my Mom's, that I've ever had.  It was so good.  Max Brenner is a chain so if you are in a town with one, you should try it, even if only for the dessert...the chocolate is so good.

I don't want to be a surgeon when I grow up!

I don't want to be a surgeon when I grow up.  I thought I didn't like surgery because I just had a yucky core rotation, but I realized that I just don't like surgery that much.  I don't dislike it, but I think you really have to love whatever specialty you choose.  I don't love surgery.  I can handle doing this for one more month, but that is about it.  I am just not going to be a surgeon.

I saw a commercial for New York--Presbyterian Hospital.  It was about a little girl who had a tumor in her belly the size of a baseball and how this surgeon took our her organs, removed the tumor, then put her organs back in.  When I saw this commercial, I was reminded why I wanted to go to medical school in the first place: I want to cure cancer.  Now, if I got to see this cool surgery that was described on this commercial, I'd probably love surgery.  Actually, this commercial made me wonder why anyone would want to do anything but cure childhood cancer.