Bostonian in NY

A year in the life...

2011-04-19T15:06:00.003-04:00

So apparently intern year is time consuming. I take back all of the bitching I did in medical school...it was miserable, but all I had to do was pass the next test and get into a residency. At least I wasn't responsible for people's lives. I look back on some of the things I wrote, and what an insecure, pampered and petty ass I was.Needless to say, Intern year has been an interesting experience.

A couple days off

2010-07-20T22:22:00.002-04:00

It's been nice to have an orientation month to ease into things. I spent the weekend home moving my stuff out of my mom's house, met a few of my med school friends for dinner in Boston, came back my apartment with beer supplies in hand and brewed up a nice Belgian Witbier with a clone of Abita's Turbodog on the way sometime this week. I also managed to fit in an 11.5 mile run yesterday and one of

Novel Homeopathic Therapy

2010-07-19T11:47:00.004-04:00

3:40AM- Rashclick-click...sweet this will take 5 minutes to dispo...WTFNurse was convinced it was scabies...it wasn't. Turns out one of the frequent flyers was in not for his usual drunken altercation with facial trauma but for his poison ivy...for the 4th visit in 48 hours. For the fourth time, he was discharged with instructions to GO TO THE PHARMACY AND GET SOME HYDROCORTISONE and BENADRYL. Dr

47 f-ing RBCs and other fun...

2010-07-17T17:19:00.005-04:00

So I got to do my first LP in the department the other day...heavily supervised by one of the more intimidating docs. He was actually quite the patient individual while teaching one on one. He did a great job of teaching in a friendly manner and not making the patient flip the fuck out because I'm doing it for the first time... The LP goes smoothly, and I'm in the spinal canal on my first stick

Sorry...it's July

2010-07-09T21:41:00.002-04:00

"It's OK, it's July" is something you hear a lot as an intern. But you quickly learn that it means different things coming from different people:Other EM residents run around to pick up the slack that us slower members of the herd create...they see the sick patients, the low-acuity urgent care cases and manage to keep things from grinding to a halt. When they look bedraggled, and I've chased them

Fireworks

2010-07-08T12:58:00.003-04:00

I strolled into the first day of work on July 3rd with expectations that I would be a little overwhelmed by everything that was happening. After all, everything would be unfamiliar to me: the docs, the systems, the nurses, the techs, my job as Dr. Bostonian...everything except for the medicine. I dropped my bag off, met the other intern on with me in the lounge and we headed down to get things

Rollin

2010-06-29T23:43:00.003-04:00

After suffering through HOURSSSSSSSSSS of GME orientation and VA orientation over the past two days, jumping through the flaming rings of paperwork/med school/repetitive PPD tests I have some schwag that says Dr. Bostonian, MD and a matching prescription pad.EM orientation tomorrow where I get my monogrammed scrubs and free lunch, a few days off and then evenings for July 3 and 4...I'm on the med

Interwebs on and a new format

2010-06-27T23:15:00.002-04:00

I was without interwebs for around a week and it hurt my soul...but now, FINALLY I have some lovely broadband all to myself (and a new TV with some HD/DVR capabilities to allow my brain to turn to mush after my crappy shifts and so I can catch all of those shows/sporting events that I'll probably be working through).I'm all moved into the new Upstate digs! I'm in a very nice/affordable apartment

The donor

2010-06-19T00:35:00.006-04:00

You do it hundreds of times in medical school, so much so that it becomes reflexive. Knock, open door, walk into a patient's room, introduce yourself with a smile and a handshake and then promptly tell the patient to get nekkid and toss a gown at them before invading every inch of their privacy. Then you close by saying something reassuring, and telling them they can get dressed. I had the

Brain...activate...

2010-06-15T00:51:00.003-04:00

I've realized that my brain has been completely shut off for the past 6-8 weeks. Nothing new coming in (except for experiences and beer) and nothing creative (or even remotely intelligent) coming out. So in an effort to not kill every patient that I see over the first week of internship, I have tried about a dozen times to crack open my copy of the ACLS book to get the brain rolling with some

Where I've been, where I'm going...

2010-06-08T22:58:00.005-04:00

My 5-year college reunion was a great time (except for the 2 day hangover and some time-traveling) and it did give me a chance to catch up with a bunch of quality folks that I hadn't seen in far too long. With the newly minted MD after my name, mt friend's girlfriend altered my nametag to read Dr. Bostonian. I spent a lot of time explaining to the non-med folks why I've disappeared for the last 5

I feel panicky...I feel old

2010-06-04T12:47:00.006-04:00

I have two more glorious weeks off before my orientation starts up and I've been hanging out at my parents house in MA. They're relocating to the west coast because of my dad's employment situation (now employed, but on the west coast). So by hanging out I mean I've been cleaning out all of the relics of my childhood and being forced into unpaid labor to get the house ready for the market (

Brief update and transitions

2010-05-29T22:17:00.007-04:00

So where has this former blogging addict with an increasingly jaded streak disappear to for the past few months?2 words: 4th year. I finally hit the sweet spot between matching and graduation where nothing mattered but enjoying the last few weeks of having absolutely no responsibilities. How to celebrate? An epic 3 week trip to Utah for credit learning about wilderness medicine with awful views

Status post match

2010-04-15T22:14:00.003-04:00

Ok...it's been a month since the last post. Bad blogger...I know. And it's not for lack of things to write about, but for lack of any sort of desire to write them and a nasty case of acute "oh crap I'm going to be a doctor soon"itis.What you've missed while I was away:The MatchWoke up to a 70-degree blue-bird day, cooked a nice pancake breakfast for my friends and mixed up some adult beverages to

BLACK MONDAY...

2010-03-15T14:25:00.003-04:00

For those of you that don't know...today is affectionately known in the academic medical world as Black Monday...the monday before the actual match. You get an email in your inbox at 11:57 AM titled "DID I MATCH?". Double click. Valsalva... Sphincter clench.........F*&^ING LOAD ALREADY!!!!!Congratulations! You have matched.Check the Match Site at https://services.nrmp.org/r3/ on Thursday, March

Welcome to the Jungle...

2010-03-04T00:48:00.000-05:00

So I sucked it up for the past month on the Medicine floors paying the hospital about $200/day to play intern... and I have never been sooooo frustrated with how things run in the medical world. Diagnostics/studies/consults are ignored or delayed because of where the patient's request was put in line behind the other 600 beds in the hospital. Nurses are paging with annoying dietary/social work

Against Medical Advice

2010-02-26T23:45:00.003-05:00

Time for a little thought experiment here folks:Imagine that you weigh about 500 pounds. You get one of those big boy beds with the inflatable mattress that prevents new decubitus ulcers on your ass (like the one you have at home). You haven't moved said ass from your bed since last fall. You've got a couple new-ish metal joints because your massive girth destroyed the perfectly good ones you

Can we strangle patients?

2010-02-14T22:07:00.006-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days where your stupid patients have stupid problems that the poor nurses have to page you for? Here's two dandies from today:Patient 1- 30's female with a personal and family history of DVT, now at 15 weeks gestation with a DVT in her thigh. Should be simple enough, hypercoaguability work-up, heparinize and discharge on lovenox. Yeah, right..."Where was your

Stupidest dispo of the week

2010-02-11T23:46:00.002-05:00

96 yo M- medically cleared for transfer to Inpatient Psych Unit for suicidal ideationListen...if I ever make it to 96 (and I plan on killing myself with a lifetime of bacon, red meat, beer, scotch and family cardiac history long before that) and I feel like dying, just put me on Comfort measures and send me to hospice so I can have some compassionate care instead of medical wards or the fucking

Words of wisdom

2010-02-11T23:43:00.002-05:00

I love old folks because they drop these hilarious little pearls off the cuff without thinking twice. Yesterday from an 81 yo guy:"You know you've become old when moving your bowels is better than sex ever was."Man, I hope I never get old.

my whereabouts

2010-02-11T23:27:00.002-05:00

I know that I've been a bad blogger...but 4th year has been sort of more than I thought it would be.What have I been up to since October when I used the blog as a procrastination tool for step 2?Training for my first marathon in March, sort of half-assing it through partly due to weather, partly due to interviews/traveling and partly due to lazinessResidency interviews- invited to 16, went to 14

Cross posting...

2009-10-14T20:40:00.002-04:00

Two things that I put on my facebook page today that I'm cross posting...1) the above picture2) this link: Suck it up, America (via DocShazam)Now it's time to watch some TV and pack for the drive back to Massachusetts tomorrow...huzzah

FML...AGAIN

2009-10-13T14:06:00.002-04:00

Lappy is expired again...t-3 days until exam...FML. Looks like I'm sitting in the library for the next few days.I'm pretty sure that the poor innocent Dell tech support guys had no idea what to do with the irrational, angry, over-caffeinated, sleep deprived medical student on the other end of the phone blabbering on about some sort of "medical licensing exam" with "major career implications"

3.5 days left...AAAAAH

2009-10-12T13:19:00.002-04:00

Lappy is now back and fully functional thanks to its third motherboard and the nice technician that came out to install it! I spent most of Saturday on campus using the computers there (shudder) and had some serious flashbacks to my first two years of med school. Luckily one of my friends let me borrow one of his 3 computers and I managed to get by alright. I had been thinking about postponing my

GAAAAAAAAAAAAH...FML

2009-10-10T14:50:00.003-04:00

Not sure if everyone's seen this website but it's called F my life, pretty classic stuff on there. If there is such a thing, I had the med school equivalent of that today.I'm taking Step 2CK in 6 days and I woke up to find my computer dead with 30% of USMLEworld to go. FML.

Welcome to Neurosis...

2009-10-06T13:43:00.005-04:00

In behavioral health/psych, we learn about obsessive-compulsive disorder which is mainly characterized by intrusive thoughts that cause anxiety and compulsive behaviors that alleviate the anxiety. (DSMIV criteria can be found here.) Whenever OCD comes up, there's always the half-joking/half-serious tag added on that "a little bit of this isn't a bad thing in medical school," and we all nervously

USMLE World...

2009-10-02T09:51:00.004-04:00

Is slowly killing me. Although, it is GREAAAAT at exposing the weaknesses in my fund of knowledge: Apparently I suck at peds and psych. And the roller-coaster of performance isn't very confidence inspiriting either.I've also noticed a disturbing trend in reviewing questions: the longer I go with questions during the day, the worse I do. The earlier in the day and the more awake I am, the better

Where's the awesome???

2009-09-30T14:33:00.005-04:00

Fourth year of medical school is supposed to be the promised land after years of slogging through the pre-reqs, the pre-clinicals and the core clinical rotations. My EM rotations over the summer were PHENOMENAL and I will share my stories when they're not subject to search and seizure by the programs that I've applied to...not that I'm paranoid much in due time.However, Geri put the brakes on the

Positive physical exam findings

2009-09-18T20:05:00.003-04:00

After examining hundreds of normal people finding something on physical exam that isn't right is sort of a novelty. Today I had a couple of them in one poor old guy who had a problem list extending to number 18:1) AAA actually does feel like a pulsitile mass in the abdomen...but I knew about that one2) Bruits in almost every large vessel...knew about the PVD and carotid stenosis too3) I

An indecent proposal

2009-09-17T20:01:00.003-04:00

I'm drawing some blood from one of my little old ladies today...actually my own patient...bent over her bedside palpating her contracted, cachetic little arms to try and find ANY vessel that I can stick a 22 guage into.LOL: Tell me that you love me...Bostonian: Ok...Berta, do you even know who I am?LOL: No...I thought you were my man.Bostonian: Well we just met this morning, I think we're moving

Whiplash and Teamwork

2009-09-17T19:29:00.004-04:00

WhiplashAfter finishing up a wonderful couple of months in the ED's of Massachusetts, I headed back down for my September Geriatrics rotation in the Bronx. One of my EM attendings predicted it would feel like whiplash...and it has!Talk about polar opposites of the health care spectrum...I went from managing 7-8 patients per shift from presentation to managing 1-2 patients at a time...without the

Insurance = Care???

2009-09-17T19:28:00.001-04:00

I started writing a post sometime back in August about the health care debate and sooo many of my gripes with both sides and how stupid the whole process was...and then it sat as a draft because it was pretty much unreadable and full of half-formed ideas and grossly stated opinion...but it started something like this:Putting aside all of the death pannels, town-hall screaming matches, etc. here's

less aweful reading

2009-08-17T13:42:00.002-04:00

b-9 Radgirl's path was benign!!! Best of luck with recovery

And now for some aweful reading...

2009-08-08T14:49:00.002-04:00

One of my more faithful readers Radioactive Girl was just diagnosed with cervical cancer following her recent surgery and had the courage to write about her surgery on her blog. My heart goes out to her and her family. Please send her your positive vibes as she's waiting for the path results. I can't even begin to imagine the horribleness of having to wait for these things.

Some good reading lately

2009-08-08T13:42:00.004-04:00

Since I've been taking a little bit of a break from writing, I've had some more time to keep up with my blog reading list between my shifts and studying to get up to speed. Here are some of the highlights:White Coat's Trial- this has been a phenomenal series to follow. It highlights some of WC's thoughts going through the trial, the process of being sued as a physician and how malpractice

Back where I belong

2009-08-07T23:37:00.003-04:00

For the past month I've been the Bostonian in Boston. My natural habitat!!! I've been hanging out in some of the Hub's better emergency departments and I'll be spending August in another cool Boston-area program. I can't tell you how nice it has been work in the field that I want to match into in the city I want to live in. I finally feel like the past 3 years of pain and suffering are coming to

T-minus 1 year...

2009-07-01T23:47:00.001-04:00

July 1st...the worst day to be a patient in the United States. One year from today, I'm going to be licensed to kill. Reminders of that were everywhere:1) ERAS went active today...2) My friends who are interns all had Facebook statuses with something like "I hope I don't kill anyone today..."3) There were a couple blog posts about it...like hereScaaaary stuff my friends, scary stuff

My buddy the heroin addict

2009-06-24T21:59:00.003-04:00

We're standing on rounds and the resident presents the following patient that was admitted to our team over-night: