My Doctor-Style

Being a fourth year med student is exciting because you know that in just a few short months you're going to graduate and finally be a doctor practicing medicine. At the same time it's pretty scary because you're going to soon be a doctor practicing medicine. I think I've said before that as a med student you  feel like you'll never be capable enough to take care of patients on your own, but the good part is you have all these great physicians teaching you and guiding you. And as a fourth year med student you really start building confidence and figuring out you're own style of how you want to practice.

It's interesting working with so many different docs during your years of training. Each physician does things their own way and has varying approaches to treating patients. On one hand, it's difficult adjusting to each doctor's style and how they want things done. But it's also neat because you get to pick up little tips and tricks from each doctor you work with and create a style of practicing medicine that's all your own.

For instance, some doctors can be sticklers for running on time and keep track of each visit down to the minute. If your needs require further attention, then they simply schedule you for another visit. Other doctors are more liberal with their time, which means they may let their patients chat a little longer or do a more involved exam. Unfortunately that may make them late for their other patients. My aim is to be more in the middle. I'm definitely a chatter box and love getting to know my patients beyond their diagnoses and if I have to stay a half hour later or so then that's ok by me. But I also want to be respectful of my patients time, since it's just as precious as mine.

Another huge difference I've noticed with the doctors I've worked with is how they diagnose and treat patients. Some doctors are very conservative and have more of a "watch and wait" kind of attitude, while others go the "rule out the worse possible diagnosis" route. Not that either way is really wrong or right, but I've found that being somewhere in the middle will make your job a little easier and keep your patients happy too. But in reality it all comes down to a case-by-case basis. A common cold, is just a common cold, but abdominal pain could be 50 different things.

The thing I'm probably the most excited about as a future doctor is getting to practice a style that's all my own. For now I have to conform to how each doctor I work with practices, but in less than eight months I'm on my own! And I'm so thankful to all the physicians who've taught me along the way and given me advice. I think I've learned something valuable from every single person I've worked with (including nurses, medical assistants, and secretaries) and each one has helped mold me into the doctor I am today. Now I know I still have a couple more months of learning and molding, but I can confidently tell you I won't be like this guy:

"Hi Everybody!"

 *In case you've been off the planet for the past two decades, this is Dr. Nick from The Simpsons.

I'm a Big Kid Now!

My little bug is a little over 14 months now and I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He's finally mastered the art of walking, which has actually made my life a little easier because I don't always have to carry him. We can actually run around at the park, and he chases the dog around the house non-stop all day. He also had his very first dentist appointment today, which sadly I couldn't go to because I was working, but dad says he was such a good boy. They even took a picture of him with his new toothbrush and printed it out for us!

Also, we recently bought him a potty. I'm aware that it's probably way too soon to expect my child to learn how to control his bladder, but I figured we'd just introduce the potty to him. So each night before his bath, we sit him on the potty just for the fun of it. Well, tonight he actually peed in it! Then he stood up. Then he peed more on the floor. Well, he at least he half understood the concept. I'm still a very proud mama.

I feel like time is totally flying by. The other day I did a well child exam on a two week old and I was so amazed at how tiny the little baby was. It's hard to think my little man was that small once. Now he's this walking, talking, peeing-on-the-potty machine.... and superman.

Let's fly, let's fly away....

Maybe you've noticed from my title, that this is the sequel to my previous post. I am sitting in Philadelphia's airport trying to bide my time until my flight. I have five hours to kill. Yes, five hours. So what do you do when you have all this spare time in an airport? Well, you drink wine of course! There's this beautiful little restaurant called Vino Volo and I've been sitting here trying all kinds of wines, eating delicious food, and splurging on desert. After all, I deserve it since I just finished my last exam of medical school!

Salute!!

Come Fly with Me....

Well, I'm sitting at the airport waiting to board my flight to Philadelphia so I can take my final board exam of my med school career. I've only ever flown by myself once before and that was going to an AMA conference, but happened to have someone I knew from my school on the flight. I usually get nervous about flying, and even more so now that I'm alone. To top it all off, I'm going on one of those smaller kinds of planes, which just give me the hibee jibees. They usually make all these scary noises, and the landings are never as pretty as a big Boeing jet.

I remember flying to Ireland for my honeymoon and we had to take a small plane to New Jersey before hoping on the long flight to Limerick.  I vomited right after getting off the plane in NJ. Partly because the decent was so rough, but also from my nerves. I just don't like to fly. It's not natural for a billion-pound hunk of metal to defy gravity and fly at the speed of light. NOT NORMAL. But flying to me is better than the alternative, which would be to make a 12 hour drive. And considering I have to miss two days of my clinical rotation to do this thing, the less travel time the better.

The most exciting part to me is getting to stay in a fancy smancy hotel. I LOVE hotels. I would live in one if I could. From the freshly made bed to the bright and shiny bathrooms, hotels just make me feel luxurious (well, I guess it all depends on the actual hotel you stay in). I got a sweet deal where I get dinner and breakfast included in my stay, so I don't have to venture around a city I don't know too well to scrounge for food. Plus I need to actually spend some time preparing for my exam, which I just started to get nervous about. So wish me luck!

Life is Good :)

I cannot believe how fast everything is going by. I just finished my first week of a very important showcase rotation. The anxiety of the first day at a new hospital where you don't know anyone is so stressful, but at the same time I was so excited. I think the more rotations I do, the more comfortable and confident I am. I can only hope that the physicians, and most importantly the residency director, see that. It feels so good to get to do something you truly love doing and get so much fulfillment out of. I feel very lucky coming home each day knowing that I'm doing what I know I was meant to do.

This week really was a hodge podge of all kinds of patients. I got to counsel a patient with new onset diabetes and map out a care plan for him. I also spent a good amount of time doing physicals, which is paramount to family practice. If you can do a thorough physical in a timely manner, then you're golden. I did a morning of maternal-child health, which I got to round on newborn babies and their moms, as well as some sick children in the hospital. I was assigned to a child with an asthma exacerbation that just wasn't getting much better on the current treatment regimen. And being a medical student, the doctors like to give you a lot time to examine the patient, doing your charting, and do some research. So I got to really learn a lot about asthma management in a pediatric patient.

One of my favorite things to do is well-child-checks, which I got my fair share of this week. I saw a lot of infants, which I used to be kind of nervous seeing babies but have grown quite comfortable with it recently. I think now that I'm a mom, I can totally relate to the parents and try to make them feel more comfortable. Also, I've become great at going through developmental milestones since I just try to think back at what Killian was doing at certain ages. I know each kid's different, but it's nice to have my own little model at home to learn from. I was able to talk about the new car seat recommendations with a young mom, and talk about post-partum depression with another. It felt awesome being able to help fellow moms like myself.

I'm having such a great time on my rotation, but unfortunately it has to get interrupted next week to fly down to Pennsylvania to take my COMLEX PE exam. Yes, another test! This one I have to see 12 pseudo-patients, only having 14 minutes to get a history and examine them. Then you get 9 minutes to write a note on them. Seriously? 14 minutes?! I challenge you to time how long your doctor spends in the room with you, and I bet it's a lot longer than 14 minutes. Despite most "acute" visits only getting scheduled for 15 minutes, most doctors take longer than that, which is why they're always running behind! But it's not like a buzzer goes off at that 15 minute mark and they dart out of the room without finishing parts of their exam or discussing treatment options. So the idea of being timed seems pretty unrealistic to me.

So this will be my official LAST exam of my med school career. After today, it's just rotations, interviews, the match, and finally graduation (which is eight months away in case you were wondering). Oh, and by the way, I just found out today that I passed my COMLEX written exam that I took a few weeks ago! One step closer to finally being a "real" doctor.

"Real" Housewives

It was a momentous week here in my household. We have officially gotten cable! Yes, cable television. Since we moved into our place a year and three months ago, we have not had cable TV. We were on a tight budget and decided that spending a ridiculous $80/month wash just not worth it. So we got Netflix instead, which sufficed until I literally watched every episode of Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, Rescue me, Crank Yankers, Friday Night Lights.... you get the picture.

Well, since the blessed day we had cable installed I have been GLUED to my couch (during the hours Killian when is sleeping or napping). Boy have I missed TV, particularly the wonderfully trashy "reality" shows. And just my luck, there was an all day marathon of Real Housewives of New Jersey on this weekend. Naturally, I had to catch up on this season! As much as I find it so entertaining that these ridiculously rich women are making fools of themselves, I can't help but get so irritated.

First of all, the title of the show is a complete lie. This women aren't "Real", they're about as fake as Pamela Anderson's breasts. I'm no housewife, but I'm pretty sure being a housewife entails some actual housework.... like doing laundry, dishes, making dinner, and actually taking care of your own children. It's hard work! These women on the show wouldn't know the difference between a Swiffer and a Mr. Clean magic eraser. One particular housewife, who was publishing a cookbook of her mother's italian recipes, didn't even know what cumen was. She even pronounced it "come-in". Seriously? Not to mention there's never a moment on the show where you actually see these women participating in the care of their kids. They literally just spend their time buying overpriced trashy clothes, attending extravagant parties, and fighting with each other. Drama, drama, drama!

It makes me so sad that these are the role models we have on TV. And the fact that these women are now made famous and even more rich because of it is killing me! There are thousands of women who are housewives, homemakers, stay-at-home moms who actually do something that is honorable and productive. And these women just make a mockery of it. I can only hope that when they look back on these episodes they realize how self-absorbed and ignorant they appear, and hopefully will change for the better because of it.

In the meantime, I'll stick to watching my fake medical shows and other great shows like 30 Rock and The Office. And if I ever feel like watching a show about a "real" housewife, I'll check out some I Love Lucy re-runs.