sometimes there is nothing to say...

I have not blogged in a while, and in truth the only reason is laziness over the last few weeks. I finished up my family medicine rotation, where my preceptor clearly did not like me much. The last day the staff said goodbye the two other doctors told me to contact them if i needed anything and my preceptor simply left the office without a word. I did not even realize she had left. Glad its over!! the very last day of the rotation, i spent the majority of the day seeing her appointments and walk-in patients and not even a goodbye!! The day started off wrong, and my hopes of improvement were slim. At 7:30am i show up pour some coffee (like i do everyday) and take a look at the census for the day. I see the first 3 patients before the Doctor even shows up, and i wait patiently for her to start since all the rooms are full. So i am standing at the lab with my coffee, she comes in demanding to know about the 3 patients, but before we go into a room (its about 8:45am at this point) she looks me in the face and says, "you look really tired this morning." In case you were not aware, this is the equivalent of a nurse in the hospital asking if you are "post call," its the polite/not so nice way of saying you look like crap! That is how the day started and it didnt get any better until 3:30pm when she left, i could finally take a lunch break and enjoy the afternoon with another doctor. So glad that rotation is over!! Family medicine is not for me at all.





My rotation ended on a thursday, I had my shelf exam on friday, and i started my new rotation on saturday. My most dreaded rotation of medical school.....ambulatory pediatrics! My goals for this rotation are easy: first, dont get sick (everybody gets sick on this rotation), second, try and learn as much as I can about peds since i never plan on doing it again, lastly, try to have some fun.

after finishing a week of peds my attitude has changed, Peds isnt that bad! i dont think i could do it everyday for the rest of my life, because i dont think its that much fun either. Overall its not as bad as i thought it was going to be......they are kinda cute, even with the snot coming out the nose....

I have been able to see some pretty interesting things so far.....but my first day i missed a diagnosis and i am still kicking myself for it.....

a 3year old girl comes in because she been developing a rash. they look like pimples, and she has 3 of them total on her entire body. one of them popped this morning and had pus, another one scarred, and another one is just developing with redness and swelling...

I really was not sure what it was, and i when i asked the doctor he said its 'chicken pox!' Now i have seen chicken pox, and this didnt look like chicken pox. I had them all over the place, scratched at them, picked at them, had a fever and looked horrible. This girl didnt even seem to notice she had them. So really easy mistake. Especially because all children get routinely vaccinated against chicken pox, that those who develop the rash, have a very mild case.....but seriously all i can think is man....i missed chicken pox!!!

luckily while i was on family medicine, i did not miss a single diagnosis of herpes zoster (ie shingles - caused by the same virus)...seriously i missed chicken pox!!

On the other hand i have correctly diagnosed several other rashes - molluscum, roseola and fifth's disease, candidiasis. Rashes are a common problem in peds, so hopefully i will not miss another case of chicken pox!!







The other great thing about peds is the repetition....on a normal day, the types of chief complaints i see are:
- rash
-runny nose, congestion and cough
-fever
-wheezing
-diarrhea


thats about it, i see over 30 patients a day....mostly sick kids with upper respiratory infections and low grade fevers, or kids with eczema and diaper rash.

I am actually starting to look forward to inpatient pediatrics in march. Maybe it wont be as horrible as i was anticipating.

In reference to my non medical student life, its pretty status quo....i go on a series of not so great first dates....and realize that dating is horrible and awkward, and most of the people who are still single, have good reasons for that! So luckily i have some awesome girlfriends who keep me sane and a schedule that keeps me busy. I am loving my life right now, even on pediatrics. Especially because i am taking some trauma calls this month when the trauma team is down students.....

and of course i am being the good jew and working Christmas....cause really trauma patients or Chinese and movies??? the choice is so easy, chest tubes for everyone!!!

I really will try and update more often, but some days are boring and i feel there isnt anything to say about my life on clinical rotations, especially when i am in an office and not a hospital...all the drama and good stories come from the hospital...

for instance my roommate who is on trauma surgery this month, is starting a photo collection of foreign objects she has removed from a patients anus. usually the patients are male (cause clearly men are stupid and instead of putting things where they belong, they put them in their butt). So far she removed a 16inch double sided dildo that had "slipped in" so far that you could not see it, she had to reach into the rectum up to the sigmoid to get a hold of it.....awesome! the other was a foreign object resembling the male anatomy of the vibrating type. also sufficiently stuck in the man's rectum. If she didnt have pictures, i would believe the stories....but really they are funny!!