This was easily my most emotionally challenging month of intern year to date. I watched patients receive life-saving organ transplants. I pronounced patients dead (and when I finally regained myself, I had to do it again… and again). I did bronchoscopies and arterial/central line placements. I worked with well-reputed physicians,…
Flolan (epoprostenol) is an AWESOME medication. I remember the cardiovascular anesthesiologists using it all the time when I was a med student but never understood its true utility until this month working on the pulmonary critical care service.
This profession isn’t normal. You become oblivious to things which were once held dear. Weekends feel like regular work days. Evenings are spent still toiling away or trying to sleep whenever possible. Holidays have become more of a privilege than a guarantee.
One of the mantras my attending emphasizes with regards to critical care deals with the timing of our interventions. In critical care, there’s “a time to give and a time to take.” So what does this mean? Well let’s address a common scenario:
What a crazy first week! I felt like I was constantly writing notes, seeing a new consult, in conference, or walking between places in the hospital. I tried picking up tidbits of critical care knowledge along the way, but most of the time I’m a note writing machine. I’m super…
Well it’s time to start my sixth month of residency – pulmonary critical care (PCCS)! I enjoyed spending some time with my parents over Thanksgiving break and had a chance to wrap up a presentation for the first morning report of the month tomorrow! I also reviewed some basics about…
It’s a cold Wednesday night, and I’m sipping on some hot chocolate while watching the Rockets’ basketball game. The last month was a joy – having the opportunity to work with a co-anesthesia-intern to work up a slew of consults like supraventricular tachycardia, hypertensive urgency, sick-sinus syndrome, and the bread-and-butter…
Even though it’s the 18th of the month, I’m almost finished with my clinical duties on cardiology because I’ll be on my night shifts at the end of this week and have Thanksgiving vacation in the latter part of next week. That being said, its been a wonderful rotation so…
Two days left on my first month of inpatient medicine wards! Of the eight medicine teams, I’m on the one “day admitting” (aka, up to 8 new patients) on the very last day of this rotation… Halloween, nonetheless. What luck! :-( Here’s hoping I don’t look ridiculously exhausted during orientation…
Inpatient medicine wards are considered much more difficult compared to our other intern year rotations, yet the privilege of getting to manage a patient’s full set of medical problems is a valuable learning opportunity. I’ve been extremely lucky to have an attending, fresh out of residency, who the entire team…