"Miss you, miss our group, miss ob/gyn. You off this weekend? P.S. I like PEDS but it is MUCH slower..."
-Nicole

Im not the only one that feels like peds is much slower than OB/GYN. i knew this was going to happen.

Today i got to the hospital at 7:15am to prepare for rounds at 8:30 because our attending this morning was the chair of pediatrics at the hospital [the 'man']. So i got there early to know my patient very well. I saw 2 patients, one of which was the 19 month old girl who i admitted from the clinic yesterday. She was doing much better and i have to admit, she really is adorable. I wouldnt mind seeing such cute faces everyday but as everyone says about peds, you spend way more time with the parents than with the cute kids. this is making me re-think peds a lot. its not that i dont like it, but its just something to consider. Oh, and another attending today told us she didnt recommend going into peds because she didnt want us to be poor knowing how high our school loans are, she said that we shouldnt go into it. So that was interesting....

Rounds too a long time today. The doctor came in around 9:30 and then we spent almost 5 hours covering our patients. It wasnt bad though, he asked us a ton of questions but also taught a lot. We all had fun also, talked about lots of things outside of medicine and made the whole morning very interactive. When we were in OB/GYN, rounds took about an hour and a half and it was just a small part of our day. On peds, rounding IS the day because after we can go home [one student will stay each afternoon until 5pm but since there are 5 people on our team thats only once a week!] Needless to say, the hours of this rotation are much less stressful.

Lastly, there are 2 medical students from other schools on our team, 1 of them is the most annoying girl i have ever met. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but shes pretty bad. She is very eager to demonstrate her 'abilities' and will cut off other people as they are trying to explain things. It is taking me a lot of effort to not say anything to her [knowing my personality]. It is a learning experience because for the rest of my career i am going to be working with people like this girl and i just have to learn how to keep my mouth shut. The problem is that everyone else feels the same way i do, i just express my feelings while other people remain quiet. I do have something positive to take away from working with her: it helps me to shape the medical student/resident/ physician i want to become by making sure to NOT be like her and others i have worked with in the hospital...

Things i have learned:
1- kids get a lot of fevers....and a lot of illnesses can cause fevers in children
2- it doesnt matter how many times i study antibiotics, they still get mixed up in my brain
3- reading a chest x ray is not easy

the nurses that dont know me call me doctor...

re-thinking my interest in going into pediatrics....

I have been on wards for 3 days now and though the kids are freaking adorable, its not much interaction with them so much as their parents. FOr the past 2 days we have come in around 7:30 in the morning, written progress notes and seen our patients (about 2 each) and then we round with the attending from 8:30 or 9 until almost noon! It is very different from my last rotation. Most kids are admitted for fevers of unknown origin and then stay a couple days to get antibiotics. Maybe its the fact that their arent many patients that make it hard for me to imagine going into the field. Also, its not a lot of procedures or excitement...

This afternoon i went down to the pediatric clinic to write an H&P on a 19 month old girl who was having fevers, one of which was 105.5! I went in and talked to her and her mom but as soon as i started doing my physical exam she started wailing. Imagine a 19month old crying refusing for me to look at her ears while i am trying to stick a pointy object with a light into her eye to see how her ear drum looks. It was not easy and dare i say it, it was not pleasant. No joke, in the 10 minutes i spent trying to figure out how the hell to look inside this little girls mouth, ears, and nose, i decided i didnt want to do this for the rest of my life....i think i was patient that at least understand me and sit still.

But then later in the day when i went up to the ward where she had been admitted, i went in to check on her and when i said bye she said bye back and waved at me with two hands that each had examination gloves on her [the nurse gave them to her to play with and they were about 30x to big for her]. It was the most adorable thing i had seen. She wasnt screaming and she looked very cute. Maybe peds isnt that bad?

I have another 5 and a half weeks to decide. For now, I am going to read up on the 50 million things that can give babies/children fevers...

Pediatrics

First day of Peds at arrowhead regional. My day was from 7:30am and was done by 1pm. I think im gonna like this rotation. I am going to be on the peds ward for 2 weeks and there are not many children there so the days are short. arrowhead is a great facility, im looking forward to working there for the next 6 weeks.

tomorrow im responsible for writing the progress note on a kid with a complicated ear infection. how appropriate for my first peds case.


got this text from nicole today, she's at a different site for ped's:
me "how was your day"
nicole "mine was good, all my pts spoke english!!!"