Cardiology

I'm back. On my arrival I found that my car had a 5" thick slab of ice underneath and surrounding it, preventing me from getting it out of the driveway. I had to walk to the hospital Sunday, then take a hammer to the ice that afternoon to get just enough asphalt clear so that the car's wheels had enough traction to back out.

I flew back Saturday and started inpatient cardiology Sunday morning. This apparently is going to be a rough month--I only get three days off not counting the day of my flight. There are two senior residents, four interns, and two senior students on the team. One plus is that students don't take overnight call. However, since the on-call, pre-call, and post-call interns don't take admissions during the day, this leaves me, the other student, and one intern to admit all new patients. As the interns have clinic sporadically throughout the week, this means that the other student and I can get stuck with more than our fair share of work. Like yesterday, when I left the hospital at 9:00pm. Not fun. I got today off but have to go in tomorrow. I paged the resident at noon to find out what time I needed to come in--they were still rounding...at noon...this does not bode well for tomorrow, especially as three of my patients are completely new to me, and I'll have to see several patients I don't know at all who belong to the other student and interns. At least I'm learning a lot.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. This month is my last month as a student of clinical work. In April I'll be on radiology, during which time I'll get weekends off and plan to leave the hospital early in the afternoon on the weekdays. Then two weeks of "preparing for internship", and graduation! In less than two weeks now, I'll find out where I'll be spending the next five years.