CORS

This was our notorious rotation where we all pretty much dread it.  The word on the street is that it's draining, do what we are told, don't think, and pretty much be ready to be yelled at.  Oh, it's a 12 + hr day 5 days a week for 4 weeks.  Thankfully, I only have it for 3 weeks before my 1st real vacay since residency.

I've got Drs Hull/Gurland service, which is a good thing in that there are usually not that many patients on the list but it's a service where every detail has to be approved by the staff and the staff has know about it. Needless to say, it was stressful for the first week, since I haven't been on a surgery rotation since as a 3rd year student and I have no idea what to expect.  On top of that, I've got a fellow who is probably one of the laziest one I've had.

The classic moment is when my fellow asked me to go down to radiology to look at CT abdomen to confirm a leak with the radiologist but I'm not surgery intern and I have no idea what to look for.  So of course, got yelled at when I reported what I was told by the radiologist. This happened 2 more times.  This should totally be something that the fellow should do because they know what other questions to ask and how to look at the scans.  It's not something a nonsurgical intern should do.  Later I found out that he should have been the one to do. Oh well, live and learn.

We were told that we do not go into the ORs with the fellow or staff; we just manage the floors.  So of course, my fellow asked the first day if I wanted to go into the OR.  Heck, no.

One last thing that really irked me was my fellow asking me do help with discharge summary.  PAs used to do it but they are so overwhelmed that the fellows are now doing them.  My lovely fellow asked me do it but our instructions specifically said that we are not do them since they have to include surgical info since we don't participate in those.  I almost got into an argument with my fellow over this.  I don't know how many times I have to stand up to him because of the inappropriate things he had asked me to do. Ugh.

Other than my fellow, my staff warmed up to me and really trusted me with her patients about the 2nd week. She would specifically page me before she rounds and asked me to do pain management at my discretion with some of her patients.  She also sent me short emails letting me know that she thinks I'm doing well.  She wrote a good eval to my program chair at the end.  I just felt that I haven't done anything different for any other patients or staff.  I guess I'm glad that my attitude paid off.

Overall, this was an exhausting 3 weeks. I'm glad this is over and that it was during winter, it didn't matter that it was dark coming in or leaving the hospital.

Restaurants to taste

From Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri

Melt Bar and Grilled - DONE, Yum, stay on my personal list.
13463 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights, OH
14718 Detroit Ave, Lakewood, OH

Sterle's Slovenian Country House
1401 E 55th Street, Cleveland, OH.

ParkView Nite Club
1261 West 58th Street, Cleveland, OH.

Momocho Mod Mex
1835 Fulton Road, Cleveland, OH.

Lucky's Cafe
777 Starkweather Ave, Cleveland, OH.

Geraci's Restaurant
2266 Warrensville Center Road, Cleveland, OH

ALD (Pulm)

Started this rotation off with Dr. Akindipe and each of us with 3-4 patients to get to know. Fortunately, I already knew the fellow, Mike, so it wasn't too awkward. There is a PA Kathy and NP Melanie. I realize for the past 6 months so far, I have learned to work with NP/PA to help with the workload.

Anyways, the week was nice, round started around 11am and would be cone by 2pm. After that we just update what we need to then we can sign out the NP/PA as long as one of us is around to help with admission/transfers. Even then, that's only until 4:30pm. Not too bad. Mike was hilarious and very entertaining. He pretty much has a comment for every patient, depending who was seeing the patient and what topics we were chatting about.

2nd week, we had Dr. Minai and it was the week before Christmas, which I worked. Schedule was very similar to the previous week as well. Done fairly early, considering that I didn't come in until 8a on most days. But we did change fellow. For the next 2 weeks, it was Fadi. He was good too. He's a little high strung in the sense that he gets easily stressed out.

The 3rd week was when Fadi really stressed out. We were short one resident, and Dr. Chapman was staff. He known to round forever, the never ending rounds. And our list of patients were long too. I think they said that it's the longest they have seen. Our own floors were filled and we had 8 pts spilled over to other 2 units. We starts rounds around noon but still did not finish until around 7pm. I left around 6pm most nights when I finished with my patients. Thankfully, I did not have patients that are at the end of the list. It was exhausting. By the end Fadi have had it and was stressed out. Then I finally got a holiday weekend off. My New Years weekend fun.

Last week was with Dr. Lane and with a brand new fellow, his first time on the service. The fellow was nice but he was learning so there were a little scrambling at times.  But all in all, it was a good week

NYC ... New Years Weekend

Of course the day that I'm supposed to drive to NYC, my car skidded on a patch of black ice right outside my garage then I hi the ice and the curb. My steering wheel was then very shaky and pull to the left. It was ok so I drove anyway, but I did call my auto shop and made any appt to go in Monday to get it fixed.

The weekend was fun, spent it with my mistress (Kirstin) again. I got in Thurs night, so I just crashed. This was the weekend after NYC got the crazy amount of snow, about 3ft worth. CNN was reporting how it would take ambulance at least 2 hours to respond due to the fact that the roads weren't plowed. One tragic story was of a woman delivering the baby at home cuz she wasn't able to get to the hospital and the infant died because the ambulance couldn't get to her after delivery. Another tragic story was a father had heart attack and died and it would take ambulance 2.5 hrs to get to the apt and another 2 hrs to get the ER and it was too dangerous for the daughter to drive as well. Tragic stories. Wonder if the city is now more prepared?

Anyways, Friday, we looked up places that don't need too much covers to get in. All the one around Time Square are at least $60 cover just to get in. The no cover ones would probably be way too crowded. We weren't really looking to bar hop since it was just too darn cold. Ended up in Tonic East, only $10. Not bad. We had fun, drinks and dance. Had a couple of guys dancing with us and one of them literally decided to get us drunk, just kept on buying us drinks. I'm glad that I was still coherent enough to watch my drinks. I think I was fairly drunk that night. Definitely couldn't walk straight at all and ended up totally sleeping on the train ride back. haha. Didn't even realize it was midnight until people were screaming "One minute!!" then countdown "10...9...8... 3...2...1" It was fun, enjoyed myself. Now I can officially say, I have done SF and NYC for New Years, 2009 and 2010.

For New Years Day, called home, kind of dozing in and out since my stomach was upset with me because I didn't eat my drunk food after we came back. Kept wanting to throw up but not much ever came up. Oh well. Then we just kind of vegged out, playing Wii and watched movies. Were planning on going again with Kirstin's buddies from work for her B-Day, but no on was really up for it so we just stayed in. Had the best pizza, Joe's. NY pizzas are the best, still couldn't find anyone else that rivals theirs. I was actually craving for NY pizzas. haha.

Decided for Sun, we'll go into Chinatown for dim sum and shopping for what nots. Found Vegetarian Dim Sum House, across the street from Joe's Shanghai. It was actually pretty good. The only thing I didn't like was the shumai. We both acutally like the shrimp/pork shumai. The vegetarian version of it just didn't taste right. Everything else we ordered was pretty good. Totally forgot how cheap the food was in Chinatown. Then we went in search for grocery market. Found Hong Kong Market, a fairly clean and formal one. I bought few fruits to take home with me and introduced Kirstin to various fruits and spices and food. She was in food heaven. Her mom would totally be jealous. Love introducing Chinese food to people who actually likes it and would get a kick out of it. Then we went to bakery, Fay Da. It's ok. Not bad, tolerable for being in US. I still like the one my family goes to in SF. BUT no one can beat the ones in Taiwan and HK. Those are the best. Overall it was a productive Sunday.

I drove back afterwards. The drive was long and boring, especially the Penn stretch.

Got my car checked out on Monday. Yep, tires replaced and rim as well, apparently I bent the rim pretty badly and they couldn't hammer it back out. Oh well.

Reflections ... Ringing in 2012

2011 has been good and bad for me.  Started the year off with major seasonal depression, the worst winter blues I've ever had. But in the midst of it, I gained a good friend Angel who was willing to satisfy to urge for going out to restaurants.  I lend her my listening ears and in return I get company, a good swap I believed.  My biggest problem then was finding a good fit in a church that I could call home.  I was going to Parkside for awhile but found that it was too big, not really what I'm looking for.  But I also know that CCCC was not where I should be even though I couldn't really give a good reason for it until now. So I was church hopping for a couple of months and then I finally just stopped some time during the summer.  I did participated in an intense "spiritual boot camp" where I feel more and more that what I'm looking for is not here in Cleveland but I need a place for my spiritual growth.  That's going to be a problem.  At the same time, my Ca 1 year got going where it's the beginning where you are by yourself in the ORs and determines whether you sink or swim.  On top of that I have to juggle reading/studying time into the daily schedule.  Also, finally found someone who would be willing to work with me with my crazy symptoms of hypothyroid but labs said otherwise. With all this, I felt like this has truly been one of my lowest year yet and felt like emotionally stalled.  I don't know when my bright outlook will come back but hoped the 2012 will bring some energy back into my life.

With my grandmother's death not too long ago, realized life needs to be fun, enjoyed to the maxed, because if we wait, there's no guarantee that we will get to do what we've always wanted to do.  I feel like everyone should have a list of things that are must do but they have to things that we would normally not do.

I'm determined to accomplish something in my life, therefore, only 5 resolutions chosen.

Resolutions for 2012:
1. lose 30lbs - good eating and exercise
2. be consistent in quiet times
3. pick a church to attend 2x a month
4. be good about calling home 1-2x a week
5. be mindful of budgeting and put away savings for my next big trip

See you again 12/31/12!  Hopefully all will be checked off.