Today was my first day on rotations!
Yesterday morning, I had the thought of "Wow, starting tomorrow, the next (at least) five years of your life are totally going to be dedicated to the hospital and real patients. No more sleeping in until noon. No more eating 80 times a day, whenever you want to. No more fake notes with fake responsibility. $hit is getting REAL!!!!"
In an attempt to avoid this last realization (which in reality I am extremely excited about, even though slightly terrified), I went on a massive cleaning binge - polished all of my jewelry, rearranged every dresser drawer, reorganized all of my pathology notes in preparation for tutoring, which won't even start until September.
Today, I woke up bright and early. Packed my lunch. Walked to the hospital. Forgot my caffeine.
Got pimped. Got the pimp question right!
Got two keys to I don't know what. Got lost. Got found. Got caffeine.
My first rotation is Psychiatry and I am on inpatient pediatric psychiatry for 4 weeks, with half a day at the local VA. It was an extremely eye-opening and incredible experience, which included:
3 hours of lecture, which included completing a mental status exam on a Robin Williams clip
6 hours trying to interpret what my non-English speaking resident was saying to me
8 minutes for lunch
30 minutes trying to make a phone call on a hospital phone to an outside location
15 minutes looking up drugs that I have never heard of, such as Geodon, only to find out that I actually have heard of them, I just need to learn 3-4 Brand names for every drug I ever learned. No big deal. Geodon sounds exactly like ziprasidone, right?
40 minutes being an accidental gunner and staying longer than I had to
At the end of the day, I came home feeling super excited, despite not having a clue about how to use the computer systems, phones, keys, doors, bathrooms (for real, I can't figure out how to work the door handles), ID swipes and dosage book.
My fellow med student roomie summed it up perfectly:
It is exhausting to feel stupid all day.
