I blame the babies...

"... they make you toxic."

That is the summary of my first day in pediatrics - the bulk of which was spent on a furious information scouring mission for my 48-day old patient who had no collateral sources of information. fun.

"dre" is not someone's name

so, its time again for a rather long and drawn out story about my last rotation. this time around, I have an actual reason for not posting anything for over a month. I guess I should pick up where I left off in October.

psychiatry was surprisingly fun. the last post pretty much occurred at the beginning of the rotation and as the days went by, the field of psychiatry grew on me more and more. the phenomenon was pretty similar to that which I experienced in surgery - it was so much fun to go to the hospital and interact with patients and work with staff that seemed to truly enjoy what they were doing. surgery was fun, but it was also intense - at least it was intense in the OR. I don't want to say things were real lax in psychiatry, but it was just more easy going. the workplace was just as professional as any other that I have worked in, but humor played a bigger part in the daily schedule. there was always work to do, but there was also time to sit and really absorb what was going on around you. in retrospect, I probably spent just as much time people watching as I did writing progress notes and doing assessments. so, unlike my previous beliefs, a future in psychiatry might still be possible.

now, after being at the veteran's affairs medical center for over three weeks, it is almost time to move onto my next rotation. having been bred in the field and ER, I was dreading Internal Medicine even before day 1. I remembered that when I was getting home from psych and even surgery before that, Buddy and Ben hadn't even thought about coming home yet. fortunately, the rotation has not been even close to as bad as I thought. though the hours and work is demanding, I'm keeping fairly busy and the days seem to go by quickly. the attending physicians here are great. despite being ridiculously intimidating with their vast amount of knowledge, they have been incredibly genial and helpful. not to discredit my experience in medical school, but I have learned so much about pathophysiology and disease process here. my attending is particularly supporting of evidence-based medicine. learning to do all that research has been taxing, but I feel like it has been a great way to think about diagnosis and treatment. just as the other rotations before, its already been four weeks and I feel like I just got started. I'd be lieing if I said I wasn't anxious to move on to my next rotation, but I think I will miss the routine and work I've been doing at the VA. so, as another suprise, medicine is still on the list of possible careers - not at the top, but at least still there. now, I only have another half hour of freedome before we start taking call for patient admissions so that is what is going on for now. next rotation: pediatrics.