Over ID

It's been fun, but I'll be glad to move on to something else. My attending is just a smidge more scatterbrained than I'd care him to be, and he never, absolutely never runs out of things to say--useful or otherwise. As a result he's constantly late and rushing because he stops to talk to everybody, and then makes a running commentary about everybody. It can be exhausting just trying to listen for that long. It doesn't help that he's not the most organized person in the world, and as such we are running every which way trying to get things done. Ok, done kvetching.

On a better note, summer finally showed up in July. I've enjoyed being able to wear shorts, finally. I've also pulled my car out of the parking garage and park it on the street. It can be a bit hectic sometimes finding a spot, but I manage. With an awesome transportation system if I don't need the car, or know that I will be arriving home at the same time as everybody else in my neighborhood and will thus have to fight them for a spot, I plan better. It also encourages me to get back to using the bus and train. Odd as it may seem I had missed it. It's much less stressful and you get a little more exercise. It's incredible how something as simple as just driving to work encourages one to be more sedentary. 

Don't Know What to Do with Myself

It's been a little over two weeks since I took CK, and true to form I'm still unwinding from it. I'm only recently becoming aware of the levels of stress and pressure I experience and impose upon myself when I prepare for and take an exam like that. Well it turns out I'm still unwinding. I don't really know what to do with myself, and I'm still trying to piece my routine back together. It's weird. There is still a pile of laundry waiting to be folded because I got out of the habit of folding my laundry for about a month. My floors have been vacuumed and cleaned, but I still feel like what am I not doing??? It doesn't help that I have to be a bit stingy with my cash for the next few weeks. Blargh.

Infectious disease has been interesting and simultaneously boring. It's been more discussion than medicine, but at the same time that's important in this field. My attending must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle because the man can talk. And talk and talk and talk and talk. He spent nearly half an hour talking today about seemingly everything and nothing. Topics seamlessly shifted and blended together. All the while I couldn't help but thinking that this is a man who mentions he doesn't get home until after 9 some nights...and in the four hours I spent with him today almost half were just mindless talking. He'd surely get home at a "normal" hour (should he want to) just by halving the chatter. 

Expect the Unexpected

I'm currently in my first week of Infectious Disease. I've found it interesting, but at the same time just meh. I'm still in the post exam I don't give a flip. The doctor I have been assigned to is relatively new to Chicago Memorial Hospital and as such doesn't get quite as many consults as the established doctor. He makes up for by doing a great deal of administrative and policy development work. Because he felt bad that my partner and I haven't been getting quite as much hands on exposure he invited us to accompany him to another hospital where he rounds. My school used to send students to this hospital, but about nine months ago ended the affiliation for reasons that rumors still abound. The most consistent rumors focus on the fact that there are just too many students at said hospital, and that the standard of care is lacking. I had never been able to confirm it, nor did I see any chance, and quite frankly it wasn't something with which I was overly concerned. 

The hospital is nowhere near where I live, but I had known a handful of people who had rotated there. Getting there was a pain. It took close to an hour due to traffic on not one, but two expressways. The reception staff just gave us a visitors sticker without vetting us as students and away we went. When the (creaky) elevator doors opened BOOM MEDLAM!! People were everywhere. Nurses hollering out orders. Charts being whisked every which way. Medical students all over the place--seriously this place was overloaded with medical students. There were nine of us surrounding the one doctor huddled in a corner trying to get notes done. All the while this one resident on call would come over the doctor looking completely overwhelmed (not an unusual feeling for a resident I'm sure) and just stand there and want him to listen to her. At one point I thought she was going to cry and was basically just begging for someone to hold her hand. I could sympathize with her but once she stood there for thirty minutes telling war stories. At that point, we have five more patients to review (and the doctor likes to go off on rabbit trails) and I'm just thinking It's almost 6pm. I live over an hour from here. Please go away and do your job so we can do ours. I'm happy to be here to learn, but you're not helping me learn. I finally got home close to nine. Since I have been getting home at like 3 or four I hadn't made any preparations for things like thawing meat, so I just went to Taco Bell, watched the Blackhawks game, and called it a night. What a life I have sometimes!!!