Island Med Student

You may have noticed my absence from the “Internets” for the past few days. Well, I have been one busy bee. I’d guess that I’ve slept maybe 20 hours in the past 5 days. As tired as I am right now, I am incredibly content. I have officially moved to my new 2-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn (Southeast side of Prospect Park). I still have a bunch of arranging and unpacking to do, but the majority of the work has been done. I have been packing, moving, unpacking, cleaning, and in general “nesting” non-stop for the past 5 days. In addition to that, I’ve had to go in for pediatrics emergency room night shifts. So, I basically have not slept or rested until this very moment.

It feels so good to take a huge breath of my new apartment’s fresh air. I don’t have to go in to the hospital tomorrow, and I have a bunch of errandy items to take care of (including changing my address in one million places, getting (non-stolen) Internet hooked up, and the gas and electric put under my name.

I couldn’t be happier right now. I have a wonderful apartment, literally across from a huge park, and within walking distance of my residency hospital. The weather has been GORGEOUS lately. I’m fatigued, fulfilled, and fabulous.

Photo is me in my NEW (literally!) kitchen the day we got the keys.

Tired. Oh so tired (from peds ER). It’s 3 a.m. Partially delirious. Anyway, enjoy the photo. I am happy but fatigued. Good night world!

Today is Monday. It’s rained almost non-stop for the past 4 days. The streets are flooded and I have zero pairs of dry jeans left. Rain, rain, go away!

I really shouldn’t complain so much, though. At least I’ve been lucky to have the past few days off. I don’t have to go back in to the pediatric ER until tomorrow night.

More importantly, today is MATCH DAY!! I’ve already heard from a few of my friends who have matched (and none so far who haven’t matched). CONGRATS to everyone, whether or not you matched! Either way, you’ve earned the right to be proud of where you are!

I hope you enjoy the photos with this post. I took them all yesterday during a very wet doggy walk. They are also a part of my new photo series, “Trash Talkin: Giving a Voice to the Discarded.” My “Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” photo series was becoming a little inundated with trash, so I have now gone through and edited that collection a bit. My “Trash Talkin” series will now include only photos of trash, taken anywhere and everywhere, and my “Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” series will be dedicated to all other Brooklyn related photos. Enjoy!

“Trash Talkin” Photo Series

I’m pretty much sitting on top of the world right now. I had an absolutely fabulous night of pediatrics ER last night. I learned, I had fun, it was worth sacrificing a Friday night.

Today was “find an apartment day.” The long story short is that I have found someone to sub-let my apartment for the duration of my lease (and a med student, at that!).

And today we found THE PERFECT new apartment!! It’s a little less than a one mile walk to the hospital I’ll be doing my residency at AND it’s ON TOP of Prospect Park (the coolest park in NYC)…which happens to have TONS of dog run areas, and even a doggy beach!!

The location is just superb! I’ll be able to walk to the hospital every day, and I’ll be right next to a beautiful park, where me and my doggies can run and frolic and enjoy nature! We still have to get approved and sign the lease nd all those fun details, but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna work out. And we’re going to hopefully be moving in next week! Everything is just coming together like a dream!

Please watch this amazing video below of the Prospect Park Dog Beach (which I’ll soon be living a few minutes walk from!) I was so happy that I cried as I watched this movie! My doggies will soon be in doggy heaven!

I just got home from a long day of peds ER. Luckily, our attending let us go a bit early, so I actually have about 8 ounces worth of energy to post a blog entry.

Still loving the kiddies and emergency medicine. Saw about 100,000,000 viral URIs (maybe I exaggerate a little bit) and AGEs. Still getting used to restraining kiddies. It’s strange because as a psych tech, I restrained about a million adults, but for some reason, it seems more tragic and difficult doing it to a child. Holding them down to draw blood or put in an IV line can be challenging! Kids are WAY more strong than I gave them credit for before doing a pediatrics rotation. I’ve also learned the ins and outs of putting on urine bags, which is a new skill for me.

I’ve learned that handling the parents and their concerns is a very important skills in peds. I’ve also gotten a lot better at performing exams on unwilling kiddies. Always auscultate BEFORE you perform an otoscopic or abdominal exam! That way you can listen before they start screaming and crying. I’ve also learned that it’s sometimes easier to examine a baby while you’re holding them (and bouncing up and down) so that they aren’t crying and wiggling away.

The most important that I’ve learned is that the director of the program really hit the nail on the head when she said, “children are not just small adults.” There really is an art to understanding the intricacies of pediatrics. Kids are not just small adults, for sure!

Note: Photos all taken during my walk home from the hospital today. I love my little Bushwick bodegas!

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

Hours at hospital: 13
Bags of canine poop collected: 4
Patients examined: 8-10
Things learned: too many to count
Babies I made cry: less than usual
Dogs neglected: 2
Stickers given to children: 3
Destruction of apartment when returning home from hospital: more than I had anticipated
Heplocks removed: 2
Regrets: only one…neglecting my doggies
Kids I made smile: 6
Happiness because of being allowed to experience the gift of learning from kiddies: priceless

This weekend was quite pleasurable, and it really got my creative juices a’flowin. My partner Micah is in art school in Baltimore, Maryland (pursuing an MFA at MICA), and he’s been working on his thesis project, which will be installed in the Decker Gallery this month. I’ve been helping him work on the project (more than he gives me credit for…:) ) for the past few weeks. Last weekend we shot some footage in Times Square and Arturo’s restaurant in Manhattan. This past weekend involved a trip to Coney Island, climbing up to my apartment building’s rooftop, and recording footage during my bubble bath.

As you can tell, this is going to be an amazing project! I think I might even be more excited about it than Micah is.

In other news, the weather for the past few days has been AMAZING! Sunny, and in the high 50′s. Yesterday I went for an absolutely lovely run, and today I’m planning on taking the doggies to the park, and maybe spending some time at an outdoor cafe.

Yes, it’s Monday, but I don’t have to be at the hospital today. The next two weeks I will be working in the pediatric emergency room. I only have to do three 12-hour shifts each week, so you’ll likely be hearing a lot more from me. This will be a vacation compared to the 80+ hours I put in last week!

Oh yes, and happy birthday to my little sister Corina today! And belated happy birthday to my daddio yesterday!

Ever since I wrote about matching to a residency position, it seems as though everyone was very curious as to where and in which specialty I matched. I’m happy to announce that I’ll be starting my residency in psychiatry on July 1st at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, New York. There, I spilled the beans!

When ERAS opened, I originally applied to three specialties: psychiatry, family medicine and emergency medicine. My “problem” was that I felt truly passionate about all three specialties. I ended up getting interviews in all three. It was a very difficult decision for me to make, because I really could see myself in any one of those fields. I ended up choosing psychiatry, because I ultimately saw it as the best match for me. I really liked all of the programs that I interviewed at, but the SUNY Downstate program really seemed like a good fit for me. I liked the fact that they have a lot of research that I’m interested in, and everything about their program seemed like a good fit. In addition, the location is perfect. I really did want to stay in Brooklyn. The diverse patient population was also an important factor. So, when I went in for the interview, I was already very excited. The interview day was amazing. I loved all the faculty, residents, and program directors. So, when I was offered a pre-match position, there was really no decision to be made. I knew it was a perfect match for me.

So, there you have it. I will soon be beginning my residency in psychiatry. Also, I just made a wonderful discovery a few mintutes ago. I thought that I would be finishing up my electives by April 30th, but I just realized that I’ll be finished on April 16th! So, I will even have to update my MD countdown. In less than 7 weeks, I’ll be a doctor!

I couldn’t be happier right now! I just got home from a day of pediatrics clinic, which I absolutely loved. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m doing this pediatrics rotation late in the game, because I love peds so much that I could see myself doing this as well!

Note: Photos were all taken with my iPhone on the way to the hospital this morning. My obsession with trash continues. And now that I’m going to be living in Brooklyn for 4 more years, expect much more trash to come!

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

Today started out with obstetrics rounds at the hospital. Around noon, I left early to take care of errands in the name of residency and med school.

I went to a family clinic to get a physical exam for my school records and for applications to elective emergency medicine rotations. They had to draw my blood to get my MMR, Hep B, and Varicella titers. They then stuck me with another needle in order to place my PPD. After this fun visit, I went to FedEx to send in my emergency medicine letter of recommendation. I then stopped by Walgreens to get my required flu vaccination. Yesterday, I donated blood to help others, and for the free cookies and juice, of course. If you are keeping count, that’s four separate needle sticks in a little over 24 hours. I feel like a human pincushion.

Now it’s time to reply to more interview requests and sort through the piles of paperwork for emergency medicine elective applications. Lately, I feel like I’m a professional errand runner and blood giver. Ahhh, the joys of medicine and residency!

I totally lucked out today and finished my ob/gyn duties by noon. I then donated blood (and tried to donate platelets but was turned down because I don’t weigh enough), which was fun, as always. After that, I walked home and continued my attempts to get elective emergency medicine electives at NYC hospitals. After sorting through websites and documents and filling out forms, I realized how treacherous the process of applying for away electives is. I need to go to a doctor to get health forms completed, get letters from my school, apply for NY forms, and many other things. All in the name of applying for electives. There isn’t even any guarantee that I will get accepted. If I hadn’t lucked out and gotten home from the hospital early today, I wouldn’t have had the time to do all this. I don’t know how med students are expected to spend such long hours at the hospital, and also have time for this volume of paperwork at the same time. I’m beginning to actually see the rewards of the ERAS application. It might be a long and expensive process, but at least I only had to do it ONCE, as opposed to these elective applications, which all have their own various applications and forms to fill out.

Anyway, my printer is now almost out of ink, and I am tired of sorting through documents. It’s time to walk the doggies and prepare for dinner and bedtime. I really do hate paperwork. G’nite!