Sleepy Doc

Patient clueless: Doc, I think that something is moving in my stomach

Sleepydoc: Well, when was your last menstrual cycle?

Patient clueless: I can’t recall.

Sleepydoc: Can you even recall the month?

Patient clueless: Nope.

Sleepydoc: Then we will need to do a pregnancy test. But from what I am observing here, you look about 5-6 months pregnant. We will need an ultrasound to be absolutely sure.

Patient clueless: ok doc.

Ok so I believe that most doctors are working in an area of specialization that they are comfortable with.

It is really important that you understand that when you complete medical school and start residency, you are gonna be stuck doing that for the rest of your life….

So you better be sure that is what you want to do.

That is why you have the ‘clinical years’. When you should be exposed to most if not all of the different areas in medicine. So, choose wisely.

I initially wanted to do surgery. I planned my surgical rotations to be second cycle of rotations in my third year. And for my fourth year, instead of chilling out, I planned some tough sub-internships in surgery, trauma surgery, and I also stuck in ER at a level 1 trauma hospital. Basically I wanted a way to still watch the surgeons work.

I think, if you have an idea of which field you want to focus on in medicine, you really should zone in on it during those clinical years.

During the middle of my fourth year, after all those surgical rotations were over, it hit me. I hated surgery. I hated staying up late into the night. I hated being stuck at the hospital for too long. I hated not seeing the sun rise or fall. I had to wakeup at 3:30am to be at the hospital by 4:00am. Then if I wasn’t oncall, I did not leave until around 6:30pm- 7:30pm. If I was oncall….ugh!!!! I was stuck straight through the morning after my call.

It drove me nuts.

But….remember I stuck that ER rotation in there. Who knew……I loved ER. I could do procedures AND I worked on a clock.

I wasn’t stuck at the hospital whole week. Just maybe 3 sessions a week. It was interesting. I saw different patients daily. It was a dream come true.

And then it dawned on me that ER, not surgery, was the residency for me.

Who would have ever thought……..

So there are certain ‘dragon-fire breathing’ senior doctors that everyone will come across on their way up the medicine hierarchy. The goal is just to STAY the hell outta their way.

In the ER last night my colleague unfortunately came across a referral from one of those ‘fire breathers’. Here he was seeing about the patient and all of us were breathing a sigh of relief that we didn’t have to deal with that patient.

Then he decides to cut loose before the ‘fire breather’ could make her way to the ER. And guess who was the unfortunate soul he tried to hand over the patient to. I was mad as hell. Because now this would officially be my patient…ugh!!!

Anyways, I know this doc. She is a gastroenterologist and she moves like the wind. So if she calls to say she will soon be on her way to the ER, you can be damn sure she is moving while making that phonecall.

Sure enough that is what happened. By the time my colleague was trying to run out of the ER, the fire breather showed up and had him up and down the ER……hahahahahaha.

Never try to setup a colleague, just take your medicine like a grownup….:):)

I don’t want to sound uncaring, but anyone who sits in the ER for 5-6 hours with complaints of menstrual (period) pain, has to be kidding.

Every month you’ve know since you were a teenager that you would have menstrual pain…….it may or may not come with pain and vomiting. You don’t need me to tell you to stock up on pain medications or anti-emetic meds.

I get really annoyed when I am presented with patients like that. Ever so often however, the patient may be pregnant…..even more annoying.

Somehow these patients showup at like 2am or 3am…….when I am literally in my best mood…..(Sarcasm)

Had to perform stitches on a patient who had multiple stab wounds, and whose only concern was getting back to the ‘liquor’.

The patient kept moving around, forgetting where he was, telling me about his plans to beat the crap out of the guy who stabbed him.

This was a difficult patient to suture and just really annoying.

The sad part was that the patient’s girlfriend was actually outside waiting to drive him home……..how utterly embarrassing…

Today I had a patient who was annoyed with me because I thought her problem could be better served at a family practitioner’s office.

Truth be told, if the emergency room is ‘patient overloaded’ you will wait hours before you are seen.

I didn’t realize how offended she was that I actually told her ‘no’. Maybe the work ‘no’ is not something that she hears very often.

Being rude and hostile will definitely NOT get you seen any faster.

Sometimes it happens. I get tired and overworked. I start thinking that I don’t have enough of a life outside the hospital.

I start reaching to work maybe 10 to 15 minutes late for shifts. I feel burnt out and tired all the time. A bit grumpy too.

I start getting more jealous than usual of my friends exciting lives, their kids, their social circles. Usually when they have events, I am at the hospital.

This is the time when I KNOW I need to go on holidays and travel…..A LOT. Forget that I am even a doctor. Forget ALL my responsibilities. I hate when this happens and my non-medical friends don’t understand.

The problem is I love medicine. It is all I know. I can’t see myself doing anything else. I am addicted to it. It drives me daily and pushes my boundaries.

So yeah, I am definitely going on holidays soon….I hope. Just chill out on a beach somewhere sipping drinks with little umbrellas.

Until then, lemme take care of my next patient….:)