Knowledge

Do you know how fast your brain can learn things? I don't know exactly, but after this past week it sure seems pretty fast. Nothing I learned in medical seemed quite so applicable until now. Now I wish I remembered more, and that I had understood the basics better before moving on to more advanced topics!

I started as "Dr. Twist" about 10 days ago, and man what a 10 days it's been! I can't even summarize how happy/sad/scared/proud I have felt because I feel like my emotions have been on a crazyride. I actually spent my first couple days writing about how I was feeling and, well, let's just say they aren't very happy posts! They may get posted here someday but it will be the "someday" they refer to when they say "someday you'll look back on this and laugh." Although things are going well now, I'm not quite there yet. :)

I've had plenty of lovely patients (and only a couple I would have preferred not to have) and I think Morehead's hospital is great. Everyone is SUPER nice (which is very much appreciated), and things are actually efficient. Here, if I want something done -- no matter how dumb or useless it may be -- I just write it in the chart and put it on the secretary's desk. No begging for consults, no calling the lab to do tests, no nothing! I just write it down and it magically happens. It's awesome! I never thought I would do hospitalist work and though I still don't love it I think I could do it in a place like this where everyone actually does their job (and does it pretty well, I might add!).

My patients have been good. The only really scary one was my first. I had no idea how anything worked - and my first patient had altered mental status (=completely out of it) and acute respiratory failure (=not really breathing). That isn't really a good combo, and especially for a brand new doctor like me. I walked into the room to check in and the respiratory therapist handed me some blood gases. "Here's his gases since we've had him on oxygen. Let me know if you want me to change any of his vent settings." Um, first of all, I thought the respiratory therapists were supposed to know how to do that!? Either way, his gases didn't look good and I had absolutely no clue what to do, who to ask for help, or where to go. I found some help eventually but let's just say it was a pretty traumatic experience!

Since then, things have been much, much better. My mom came up today and we went to Cave Run Lake and got some strawberry cake from a local bakery. I realized that (with the exception of the first day), I'm really, really happy. I'm actually helping patients get better. I like being in the hospital. My decisions matter for the first time. It's scary, but exhilarating.

I'm home for a few days now which is really nice. Chris is on a MD-PhD retreat, though, so I can't wait for him to come home tomorrow to have the family together again! :)

I'll try to update soon but...well...you know how it goes. I'm busy saving lives!