CCF ED ...

Officially done with ED .... YEA ... A big celebration ....

It's been exhausting month ... 18 shifts in 3.5 weeks with just 1 full weekend. All my free time has been spent sleeping. Even when my mom calls me, she's like "you sleeping?" and I'm like yup and somewhat coherent. I don't think I have ever been this exhausted before. I just finished my last shift and tomorrow is the start of new rotation, Nephro.

I have definitely learn that it is with difficulty to get patients admitted when they needed to and to filter patients as they come into the ED. Some patients use the ED as their personal primary physician office so they come in for everything. Some of the things they come for, we would be skeptically say "really? that is emergency?" But what can you do. It's the American healthcare with Medicare and some PCP are not taking Medicare and ED cannot refuse patients who want to be seen. What a mess and definitely needs lots of cleaning up and politics are not doing much good now. Everything is very political within the hospital.

The staff has been great. I'm definitely going to miss them. They are protective of the residents and very willing to teach. It happened to me once where I called medicine admitting team to give them an admission but they were trying to argue with me that the patient doesn't need to be admitted. I just couldn't argue back so I handed to call over to my staff. Staff pretty much laid it into them and backed me up when the admitting staff mentioned that me as a new intern doesn't know what I'm doing. I was like "Wow, what a bogus!" All the admission calls has to be approved by ED staff before the calls are to be placed. I'm definitely glad that we interns are somewhat protected even though I do expect that we will get some verbal "teaching".

The ED was so busy that pretty much at the end of each shift, I'm tired that I just want to shower and collapse in my bed. Hardly even have to time to eat during the shift. Graham cracker and peanut butter has became the staple food during shift. I probably only end up eating one real meal a day for the entire month. I lost 5 lbs and I'm pretty sure that's the unhealthy way of losing the weight I'm really trying to lose.

That's my personal goal for intern year. Lose about 30 lbs. So 25 more to go.

Girls Night/ Weekend ...

Desperately in need of girl time and connections ... Help ...

So far, only been in the ED for about 3 weeks and have already felt very isolated. Before moving to Cleveland, I've always had some girlfriends with whom I could rant and rave to and just to meet up for lunch/dinner. I have yet to find my own group here.

So Friday nite, we had a interns' girls nite out with Tania and Deanna, a fellow anesthesia intern and derm intern. We went out to niteclub to dance and had drinks. Guys that nite were mostly creepers but we had a great time just dancing and being silly. We also had girls talk prior to going out as well. As usual, we talked about guys and the pickings that we have in Cleveland. It was fun.

Then I just had a quiet weekend with a phone call to Kirstin, just catching up. I really miss her. She was my biggest lifeline throughout med school. We were brought up in similar family lifestyle despite her being white and me Chinese. It was soothing to be able to talk to her and have her understand what's going on in our lives since we are both interns. I really want to make plans to go see her in Bronx sometimes soon. I need my Kirstin dose.

Then, Monday, I just spent a few hours before work with Sarah E and her 2 little adorable boys. It was calming to chitchat with her about finding our own niche in Cleveland as we both see Cleveland as a place for residency only. Her 2 little boys really reminded me of how much kids have and how innocent and naive we all were. They are so adorable and everything to them is so new to them. Her baby, Drew, is so content to just look around and getting used to what's happening in the world. Wondering what they think about everything that they see.

This was a good weekend to just reconnect with the world outside, away from the hospital. But I really miss the student times when we call for girls time we would go out, eat, chat or traveling. so much easier to set up. ::sigh::

First time as doctor

This feels weird as a "doctor". I start my intern year in the ED. My least fav rotation and I'll be dreading it and starting my countdown.

So far, I've had 3 shifts already and this is the start of me working on the holidays and being "owned" by CCF for the next 4 yrs. The shifts were 10 hrs long each but I have yet to get out on time since I have to sign out and finish up my notes. It's weird for to ID myself as Dr Cheung when I call for consults, call for info in nursing home or answering pages/calls. I guess it's something I'll have to get used to it really soon.

Patient population at the clinic is very complicated. They are not necessarily emergent but they always have some complicated issues. ugh. trying to dig through those is a pain in the butt, but I've definitely spent some time on UptoDate reading about them. I guess that's a good way to get some reading in during this extremely sporadic hours month.

So far time has been flying and I am glad that I'm not doing ER. It's busy and I feel very disoriented half the time I'm there since a lot of the care are broken up. So far, I'm adjusting to the fact that I have the power to put in orders and actually be able to do something for the patient despite being on the bottom of the totem pole in this crazy medical hierarchy.

I'm definitely on my way to working the holidays as this is the first holiday weekend we got. I've worked the day before and day after. Not much of celebration. Any time that I'm not working has spent either sleeping and maybe cooking if I feel up to it. It may or may not get any better as the month goes by. We shall see.