Island Med Student

I am currently experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations. My pupils are dilated and my cognitive function is impaired. No, there is no need to worry. There is a very good explanation for my current state. I just got home from a 28 hour call. I have slept approximately 5 hours in the last 48 hours. I am sleep deprived, to put it mildly. This was my first call during pediatrics and I actually had a blast. I’ve seen enough gastroenteritises (sp?!), asthma exacerbations, syncopes, seizures, URIs, fevers of unexplained origin, and pneumonias to last me quite a while (or at least until my next shift). I know that I’m crawling with kiddy germs right now, and I’m very much looking forward to a bath in a few minutes.

In short, I love peds, but the call was long and tiring. My email inbox has grown to a preposterous level due to my preoccupation with all things small, so if I owe you an email, please accept my apologies and know that I will email you back very soon.

Since I signed my pre-match offer 2 days ago, I have slept only a few hours, and I think the reality (good reality!) of it all has not completely set in. I have a feeling that it will all hit me like a ton of bricks (honey coated bricks?!) when I wake up later today. I’d share more great thoughts, but my thoughts feel like a boiling pot of goo at that moment, and I’d rather not have all you readers out there asking “why am I dripping with goo?!” (Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference.)

This is Kendra signing off.

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

Today was the first day of my pediatrics rotation. I didn’t actually do any work today, but we went through orientation and got our schedules straightened out. Here’s mine:

Week 1: Floor (with one 24 hour call on Thursday, and one 12 hour night call on Saturday)
Week 2: Clinic
Week 3: Nursery/NICU
Week 4: Pediatrics ER (three 12 hour shifts TBD)
Week 5: Pediatrics ER (three 12 hour shifts TBD)
Week 6: Floor (with one 24 hour call TBD, and one 12 hour night call TBD)

I’m actually kind of excited to be working with the kiddies. During orientation, the director made a comment that made me smile. She said, “don’t forget that some things are different with children…for example, urinate = pee pee and defecate = poo poo.” This made me immensely happy. I can already tell that I’m going to love peds!

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

There is a blizzard warning in effect for NYC until 6 a.m. tomorrow. The snow has been steadily coming down since late last night. I’d guesstimate that we’ve gotten around 6 inches of snow so far in my area in Brooklyn, and it’s calling for up to 22 inches. Today, I’ve taken my doggies on two dog walks through the blizzard. I even managed to capture a few photos and videos during the the walks. If you ever want to challenge yourself, trying walking with two fairly large, very strong doggies who pull, through a blizzard, while also attempting to capture photos and videos, and at the same time stopping to gather poop!

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

Yesterday (my birthday) was great! I got tons of happy birthday wishes (thank you, everyone!), and I got to do one of my most favorite things, lay in bed all day, pig out, and watch movies. It was very relaxing, and just what I needed.

Today was long, and wonderful. I just got home from 13 hours at the hospital for my pain management rotation. I’m too tired to share all the juicy details, but I got to see a lot of great cases and meet some wonderful patients. One of them was an ex IVDA (IV drug abuser), whose veins were all shot from years of abuse. He told me that he’d be a hard stick, so I spared him my poking, and got the anesthesiologist to place his IV access. I ended up talking to him for a while before his operation, and afterwards. He really opened up to me and shared some of his most intimate details. He told me how guilty he felt for abusing his body for so many years, and I pointed out to him that the most important thing is that he now takes care of himself, and has grown as a person. Eventually, he was in tears and I held his hand and tried to support him. Those are the moments that make long days completely bearable, and even more than that, meaningful.

Tomorrow I have a residency interview in Brooklyn. But now, it’s time to feed my calorie-starved body!

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

As many of you may know, I am somewhat obsessed with “Brooklynese.” Now you can be too, with a new “Fuhgeddaboudit” iPhone App!

Here’s an iPhone app for those of you who can’t get enough of the distinctive (yet undeniably contagious) local dialect known as “Brooklynese.” Fuhgeddaboudit features 5 cartoon, mafia-type characters who offer great words of wisdom spoken only as a New Yorker knows how. Amongst my personal favorites are “Whatsa matta, you no capish??” and of course “Lookadiss, I’m outta friggen’ hair gel!”

It’s a cool little app that I guarantee will make you laugh your first couple times through it ““ and the first time you show your friend in the next cubicle, and so on. It’s $0.99 on the App Store and was created by theappleseedstore.com, a startup app-development team based in NYC. Show ‘em love its the Brooklyn way.

My apologies for my lack of “stuff learned” tidbits during my nephrology rotation. Perhaps it’s my senioritis, perhaps it’s my “residency tunnel vision,” perhaps it’s laziness, or perhaps it’s just nephrology, but I have just been uninspired/unmotivated to write about the things I’ve learned during my nephrology rotation.

It’s definitely not for lack of learning, though. I’ve learned quite a bit during my 4-week elective. Tomorrow will be my last day, and then Monday it’s on to Pain Management.

One thing I know for sure is that nephrology seems to be a somewhat depressing field to me. The vast majority of the patients we are consulted on are very, very ill. Most of them are nursing home patients or otherwise rapidly decompensating. The prognoses are generally very grave. It seems that once your kidneys are on their way out, many times, so are you. It’s a sad, but true fact that I’ve experienced lately.

I’d say that I’ve heard “at this point, it’s about making the patient comfortable” all too many times. There tends to be very little that the doctors can do to “save” the patient, once a nephrologist has been consulted. There are exceptions, but I’ve found this to be true most of the time.

The photos from this post were taken during my walk this morning. The snow was coming down hard, and I enjoyed tunneling through the cold flakes of water during my journey to the hospital.

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

May appear closer than they are.

Photo taken today during my walk to the hospital.

Thought for the day:

Doctors do make the worst patients. And we know the ultimate secret: hospitals are the worst places to go if you’re sick.

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

I say this all the time: I am a chronic optimist. I really do tend to see the glass as half full, at least most of the time. However, this does not mean that I’m not immune to those darn pessimists, and the comments of others. People email me all the time, asking for the “down low” on med school, Ross University, and other related topics. My general response is that I loved almost everything. But that’s really related to my chronic optimism. There aren’t many things that I hate.

I’ve been trying to keep a very positive outlook on the whole residency match process. I want to believe that when a program says they like me, they are telling the truth. I want to believe that I have a good chance of matching at my program of choice. Perhaps I’m just fooling myself, but that’s the way I tend to think.

But lately, I’ve found myself being influenced by all the other med students who are also matching. I hear their stories of people interviewing at and ranking 15+ programs, but then not matching. I hear them say “just because a program says they like you, that doesn’t mean it’s true…they say that to everyone,” and I’ve found myself taking their comments to heart.

But today I found a reason to again believe in myself. I want to believe that I will match. I want to believe that other people have the same confidence in me that I do. And I’m going to try to block out everyone else’s voice, and just listen to my inner “happy” voice.

On another note, I just got back from a wonderful doggy walk, just as the sun was setting on the horizon. All the photos in this post are from my journey through Bushwick tonight. Enjoy.

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

I remember the last few months of my grandfather’s life. His Alzheimer’s was progressing and his memories were fading. I remember him calling me “Linda” (my mother’s name) and asking me about how my day at school went. I remember how I felt, and thinking how precious memories truly are. I call myself a “life enthusiast,” and to me that has many meanings. I try to enjoy even the smallest of pleasures and treasure every day that I get on this planet. I’ve been blessed with so many wonderful memories. And it’s easy sometimes to forget how very lucky I am. I think that’s one of the reasons that I enjoy documenting my life so much. It’s why I’m constantly taking pictures, videos, and writing about my experiences. For me, it’s a tangible way of preserving my life.

I took the photo above some months ago, and forgot to post it on my site. As I was going through my photos just now, I stumbled upon it, and it brought back all the wonderful memories associated with the night I took it. Please enjoy the photo, and my updated “Video A Day” (days 1 – 23) project below. I enjoy them both immensely.

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

Today was a long but rewarding day at the hospital for me. HIPAA and my fatigued state both prevent me from giving the entire and long story, so I’ll give you the short, and edited version. A patient came into the ER with an incredibly high electrolyte level. No one was exactly sure what was going on, but the patient was uncooperative and combative. I showed up as a nephrology student on the case, just as a medicine resident attempted to place a Foley.

After multiple attempts, the resident resigned to having the patient sign a refusal form. After he left to get the form, I found myself alone with the patient. The resident had explained to the patient that refusing treatment would mean certain death, but the patient didn’t seem phased.

So, I asked a simple question. “Do you want to die?” He replied with a definitive yes, and after asking a few more questions, I realized that his electrolyte imbalance was due to a suicide attempt.

The gist is that because of my questioning, we realized what was actually going on with the patient, and were eventually able to help him. I’m glad he lived. And I’m glad I was able to contribute something.

Enjoy the Brooklyn photos above. Oh, and 2 points to anyone who gets the reference in the title of this post.

“Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series