Not much to write tonight except that I have one of the worst colds of my life, and I am on call for the whole weekend, and hoping my body recoups by Monday. I have got to the point of exhaustion, after having had 3 exams in 3 weeks, and then on Friday, i finished the cycle with an intense Journal club presentation.
Ahh yes, Journal Club....no... we do not do a "sit-around-and-chat style" j-club like they do in some specialties. I even know some programs who meet for wine and/or dinner after work for it! Sometimes, even a staff person presents an article after a resident presents one. Nope.... our program involves 2 articles, and a resident reading and preparing power point slides on each one. This works out to an average of 50-60 slides to prepare in total. The audience consists of fellow residents and the staff docs. During and after the presentation you are commonly grilled with random questions : " why did they put THAT in the exclusion criteria" ; "why did they power the study at 80%?", "what is the meaning of life?"... you know, simple questions, that in your sleep deprived state, while you are totally on the spot while everyone looks at you chewing their catered lunch, you try with all your might to think quickly and sound somewhat intelligent.
I rounded this morning with one of the docs who i am on call with (or FOR) this weekend. She met me this morning on the floor, and said, "Pretend I am not even here, I will just follow you around." Okay. So we saw the first patient. He has widespread metastatic esophageal cancer, and has lost over 100 lbs. I ask him how he was feeling, and then Dr "X" took over questioning. No problem. We leave the room, and she asked me what I noticed about him... hmm, i ramble off " alert and orientated, moving all limbs, pleasant, some petiechia on this right arm, cachexic" She keeps nodding, but I know I not getting the "right" answer. Finally she says "He is pale!! You should be questioning what his hemoglobin is!". Hmm... okay, well actually I did know what it was.. it was 112 today, and has been chronically for at least the past several months. And secondly....okay. He is in for labs again today... in fact, we are likely contributing to his anemia by drawing blood every day.
She watched me round on the remaining patients, and then when we finished, she said "okay, well i am off to do groceries. You should really use softer Kleenex's to blow your nose, it is getting red."
Maybe I am just too sensitive these days.
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