thumbs down

2 thumbs down!

i have just survived my first medical call - all thanks to my lovely resident!
if not for him i would have collapsed myself, completely clueless and lost as to what was happening.

after 8 months in OB/GYN and ortho, my brain has really rotted away. can barely remember how to do a physical examination (feeling womb size and lie of baby comes easily though!), can barely remember things like dysdiadochokinesis, can't remember how to clerk patients, etc.

felt so wholely inadequate, management plans for patient are very basic are really quite stupid, (but i am sure i will improve with time!) i take ages to do anything, i am so very slow. goodness.
thankfully my resident was such a nice guy, who agreed to see the new admissions with me, who patiently explained, who encouraged me, who went down to buy me a drink whilst i did the passive ward work, who reviewed my patients without me asking, who clerked new admissions for me when he realised i was so swamped, and who never made me feel stupid or dumb.
BEST RESIDENT EVER!!!!! love him to bits. his writing is incredibly neat and nice too, like printing. whoa. couldn't have asked for a better resident on call with me :) :) :) super duper mega thankful. :D :D :D

wasn't too bad a night call by medical standards, 14 new admissions, i clerked 8, my resident clerked 5 without me, my senior resident clerked 1 (omg, yes, i am in disbelief at her utter niceness). plenty of passive things like blood cultures, set plugs, take cardiac enzymes, review results etc. but no matter! no collapses on call, only 1 quite sick patient who remained stable throughout the night. SUPER THANKFUL.

med is a whole new thing from ortho! history actually makes a big difference, examination actually may reveal something you didn't know. treatment plans are of utmost importance. you need to think hard about what blood tests to order, not just the usual PFO orders you write in ortho.

i'm learning some things in medicine, but it's hard to learn when your workload is overwhelming. very thankful that the residents are understanding and do try to help a bit, but after 2 postings where i'm expected to do everything by myself, i really don't expect their help so any help at all is a bonus. in ortho, lunch used to be at 12 or 1 pm, now lunch (if at all!) is at 3 to 4 pm, just a quick bite before exits and then a mad rush to finish things before going home around 7 pm. if i'm on call, it's even worse!

no sleep at all on calls, sigh. but at least i got to leave post-call at 3 pm, got home and crashed promptly from 5 pm all the way till the next morning, exhausted!

4 more months of this. eeks!