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Friday, July 24, 2009

ONE ROTATION DOWN, TEN TO GO!

YAY! I have officially finished my first rotation. It is amazing how much you can learn in one month. I plan to take everything I learned in cardiology with me to my next rotation, internal medicine. I am happy to say I got a great evaluation and the Dr. told me I would be an asset to any clinic or hospital I plan to work at. He also said he would be happy to give me a recommendation if I wanted one later on.

My next rotation is in Bay City. I am moving out on Sunday. I am happy that I will be working regular clinic hours and I will be able to come home every weekend. This past rotation I worked 7am to 8 or 9pm, so 8-5 sounds nice. I will also be able to go back and study and work on my paper. I did not feel that I had time to study this past month because I felt sleep was more important!

Everything is going great with Lance. I actually got to go to his work and eat lunch with him. His boss told me that he is doing such a great job and he seemed proud of Lance and the things Lance had done in this past year. I am proud of him too!

Everything is going great. I enjoy interacting with patients and my first rotation proved to me that I have definately picked the right career for me!

Amy

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Cardio

Another week of cardiology is done. I am learning a lot, but at times I still feel clueless. I still see patients by myself and report to the physician. I read stacks of EKGs, and at least he is impressed with my EKG reading skills. I have to work on my presentation that I will give in less than 2 weeks. I chose to do my presentation on Atrial Fibrillation because I have seen a couple of patients with it. We were on-call this weekend, but when I called in he said that I didn't need to be there, so I get the weekend off. I am still working from 7 am until 8 or 9pm. I decided I should wear a pedometer and see how far I walk in one day. I probably walk twice as far as needed because I get lost! haha. It would be easier if we only went to one hospital, but we go to two different ones with the cath lab on different floors in each and I get them mixed up.
I only see Lance one hour in the morning when we are both getting ready for our day, and then an hour at night before bed. It has been kinda hard on us. We have to log in the patients we see that day, so I spend some time doing that. I have not been able to study, and that is hard on me. I feel like I could learn so much more if I could read more about the diseases and conditions I see. Next month I will be living in Bay City and I think I am working in a clinic so hopefully I will have plenty of time to study in the evenings.
-Amy

Friday, July 3, 2009

Absolute Exhaustion

I just finished my first week of my first clinical rotation. I have already learned to much. I am with a cardiologist. I show up at 7am at Clear Lake hospital and see patients, then around 11am we go to his office and see patients until around 6pm. We then go into Mainland hospital and see patients until 8-9pm. On the very first day I did not eat breakfast because I was nervous. It was so busy I only had half of a sandwich for lunch and by the time I got home around 9:30 I was so tired I just wanted to go to bed. So all ate the whole day was half a sandwich. I have been eating breakfast before I leave since then.

The very first patient the cardiologists gives me the chart and says, "here you go." I thought he would at least show me how he likes things done. I see the patient, do a history and physical, look up everything about the patient in the computer and come up with the assesment and plan for the patient. The doctor just signs off on my work.

I have got to help in cardioversion, heard every single murmur, bruits, done EKGS, interpreted stacks of EKGs, seen stents and pacemakers placed.
I am also learning about more drugs than we learned about in pharmacology and when to prescribe them.

Overall, I am enjoying my first rotation, but I am SO exhausted from the hours.
Lance took a picture on my first day. My pockets were stuffed with little books to help me out. I will have to post it when I have access to his camera.

AMY