Sort of a Day Off

I had today off, but it wasn't very relaxing. My realtor met with me and did a walk-through of the house. I have a few more things to finish up and then a lot of de-cluttering to do. My plan is similar to what I do when my parents come to visit. I just throw a bunch of crap in boxes and shove it in the attic. I'll post some before/after pictures soon.


It snowed again today. Just a little bit of flurries, but it made me glad that the other day when we had "unusually warm weather" I slapped a fresh coat of paint on the deck outside to cover up all of the peeling spots. I would have liked my realtor to have been a little more optimistic today, but I guess I'll just have to see how it goes. I still think the house will show better in May when everything's green and blooming, but I would like to at least get people looking at it now.


Last night's shift was really busy. I typically average around two patients an hour, but I was at almost three per hour, and that was even with precepting an intern, which slows me up a little. I got so backlogged on dictations that I was there two hours past my shift discharging patients, slapping together splints, and stabbing at pockets of pus in the hallway and I still had to go in for an hour of catch-up work today.


The rest of the time was spent running errands... picking up empty boxes, grocery shopping, buying a shop vac to vacuum up all the cobwebs and spiders that have been breeding in the basement the past 3 years, etc.


Next week I head off on my "international medicine" rotation. Two weeks of sun, and working with limited resources. It sounds like fun... especially the nearby beach and hiking part. I can hardly wait. I'm really looking forward to lounging and reading a book in the sun.

All in a Day's Work

This evening I was watering some of the plants out in the front yard when I overheard some of my neighbors talking about their daily activities. I ended up with somewhat of a smirk on my face because I wonder what they would think if they only knew what I was up to.

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Yesterday, we had a morning of lectures, reviewed journal articles, the usual stuff. Then, in the afternoon, I went to cadaver lab with all of the other second-year residents. There were enough to go around that we worked in teams of two. Our mission was to basically perform as many procedures as we could with the equipment that we had available over the course of two hours.

My partner and I went right to work. We did venous cutdowns on both ankles, both thighs, closed and open DPL's (Unfortunately, my buddy perforated the bowel on that one, which made us in a bigger hurry to get out of there!), a couple of Burr holes, bilateral chest tubes, followed by a thoracotomy. The idea is that some of these procedures we may not actually get to perform during our residency time, or even during our careers (DPL's are kind of obsolete) and we should at least be somewhat familiar with the basic technique.

It was helpful to be in a low-stakes environment to practice, rather than our typical on-the-spot trauma bay learning, with tons of people watching and judging. And there's always something somewhat amazing about holding a lung or heart in your hands, even if it is not actively beating.

After that, I picked up my friend at the airport. He offered to thank me by buying dinner, and although I may not be the brightest crayon in the box, I am certainly not dumb enough to turn down a free meal! We ended up going to the casino that he's been trying to drag me to since we started residency. After dinner, I watched him play craps (I wasn't confident enough about strategy to fork over any of MY money, but I was more than happy to roll the dice with his!). I finally pulled him away from the table an hour and a half later and $95 richer, so technically, I think he owes me another dinner since it didn't actually cost him anything!

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Today's activities were much more common. I went to work, sat through some lectures, and followed it up with an evening of watching television and baking chocolate chip cookies. Not exactly the satisfaction of hand-drilling into someone's skull, but still a good day.