i'm covering our geriatrics (nursing home) pager this week. there are long term care patients, but mostly they're subacute rehab ppl. it kinda sucks, b/c the resident covering the pager (me this week, yay) only knows the patients b/c he/she rounded once, monday morning. there's an intern and/or rotating IM resident who also rounds fridays, but lucky them, they don't answer calls.
taking these calls has been different. it's not like taking care of ppl in the hospital. i mean, there, the patient needs a CXR? done. ABG? done. troponins? done. but in the nursing home, there's no one available to read EKGs, nor is there anyone there to intubate if necessary. plus, when you're on call in the hospital, you're theoretically s'posed to just take care of stuff that needs to be taken care of. in the nursing home, you're all they have. and it sucks b/c i've had to trust the nurses' opinions a lot, b/c after all, i have my own rotation, so i can't just whip on over there.
it's sad though, b/c in my week of covering, we've had some patients' families request to be transferred to our service. they don't know us. but many of them are unhappy w/ their care and they know there's a service (ours) that has a doctor who's almost guaranteed to answer pages (aka resident), plus an attending who rounds twice a week. so they come onto our service. not only does that suck for ME b/c i don't know them and have to rely on H&P/notes/orders online... but it saddens me that ppl get dumped there.
yes, i know that technically, doctors don't have to see their nursing home patients that often. but the ppl in the subacute rehab are there b/c they just don't qualify to be in the hospital. most of the ones on our service are pretty sick. it's sad that doctors would take on nursing home responsibilities and then just abandon ship. i've actually had nurses thank me for calling back, smthg even an idiot could do if he tried.
don't get me wrong -- i am NOT liking this week, and i can't wait to sign over the pager monday morning. but it's my responsibility, so i do it. i just feel this obligation to take care of these ppl the best that i can, and i don't see why others don't feel that too. i mean, if you're going to do smthg, you should do it right. especially when ppl's lives are concerned.
the moral of the story here? be very very choosy if you ever have to put a loved one in a nursing home!
Monday, July 24, 2006
the red tie ball was nice. as you can see from the picture below, i didn't end up wearing the red dress. instead, i took a black one and added a red sash. yes i know, i cheated. but i just didn't feel like wearing the red one. and some ppl there were sooo not in the spirit, so it was ok.
there was a live auction, but we of course didn't win anything. haha. gopooh bid on a 4-day stay at the ritz-carlton in st. thomas w/ first class airfare, but he very quickly got outbid. there was also a 4-hour experience in a fighter plane, where the pilot would let you control the plane after you got the hang of it. on the screen they kept showing the 360° rotations. um, yeah, thanks but no thanks. actually the most popular item was "american idol," 2 tickets to the show's 2007 finale in LA and dinner at spago, again w/ first class airfare. it went for $6K. if i watched the show, that would've been cool i guess.
hour, a michigan restaurant magazine, took a picture of us. when the guy first came over and asked if he could take a picture, i thought he said "our" magazine. and i was just like, huh i didn't know the hospital had a magazine... it was only later that i realized they took a couple shots so we'd have a better chance of getting into HOUR. poop. i don't want to be in the magazine! i thought it was just a hospital one! well, here's a picture on our camera:
Thursday, July 20, 2006
gopooh and i are going to a 'red tie' function this saturday. it's black tie but it's a charity for the hospital heart center. basically we're wearing red, which is a pain b/c i only have 1 red dress. but we're going b/c the tickets were given to us, and b/c it's at the restaurant we went to the night he proposed. :)
we went to men's wearhouse, where he rented a tux w/ a red bowtie! i kept asking him why he wanted a bowtie, b/c he'd always said that he didn't like the bowtie look as much, but he said he thought it looked more formal. i guess i can see that... since until a couple years ago i'd always thought a tie = suit and bowtie = tux. but whatever. the funny thing is that he got this tux that has a vest AND a bowtie. i think a vest should go w/ a tie and a cummerbund should go w/ a bowtie. not b/c that's what i think looks good, but b/c i thought that was what it was s'posed to be. but what do i care?
in any case, that night some guy on tv was trying a bowtie. and it occurred to me... "do you even know how to tie a bowtie?" he was silent and then uttered a meek no. oh great. i was like, WHAT?! we just looked at each other and burst into laughter. he'd better find some freaking good instructions online b/c i sure as hell don't know how to tie one!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
the newbies aren't bonding. i don't know what's up w/ them. i mean, i don't know what makes our year so different from theirs. E said they're all really different and they already had 2 separate friendships coming into residency. but y'know what? we're all really different, and we also had little friendships starting out. it's just that those little cliques have become one big clique.
but the new class doesn't seem like they're going to be able to do that. maybe it's too early to say that... but not really. we're going on the 3rd week already. this time last year, our class had already bonded. we had lunch together almost every day. when we had to go somewhere we all jumped into 2 cars. we just watched out for each other. the new ppl eat lunch together like once a week. and even at our academic half days they don't really chat.
we had our welcome picnic friday, and even the drug rep noticed. he told our secretary, "the new guys aren't like last year. you can tell they aren't close. last year the interns came together, they sat together and they left together." our secretary said, "yeah... and they still hang out together." that pretty much sums it up. i hope it gets better for the newbies. after all, work is work and it can drag. i can't even imagine going through training w/o these guys. we're even talking about going on vacation together after we graduate. w/ our families, of course.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
i have apparently been called to jury duty. i registered to vote once in my life, in 2004. everyone kept telling me, don't worry i've registered 3 times and have never been called. well. my dad called to tell me i got a jury duty notice in the mailbox. DAMN the bad luck!
i can't believe it. i wasn't even going to register, but gopooh kept pestering me and pestering me, and so many ppl in the world don't get to vote, blah blah, so finally i did. at the time i was living at my parents' house, but i don't even live in the same county anymore! have i mentioned that i have only registered to vote ONCE?
knowing my bad luck, i'm gonna get totally screwed. that happened to gopooh's attending. he knew counselors who'd gotten relieved from rape/assault cases b/c of the obvious bias, and he figured that being a doctor, he also wouldn't have to serve. but it just so happened that they were pulling for a criminal case in which the defense actually wanted him on the jury b/c of his knowledge and/or appreciation of scientific facts and all that. so he ended up missing 3-4 weeks of work. *barf*
i hope that doesn't happen to me. i want to appear biased! and really, who isn't? all of us are biased in one way or another. if you claim to be a non-biased person in every way, you should stop lying to yourself. ugh, i'm totally going to try to get out of this.
Monday, July 03, 2006
i had fun this weekend. i was able to hang out w/ 2 friends from college. sometimes it feels like we're sooo old, like when i remember that my 10-year high school reunion is this year. :O but other times, it feels like no time has passed at all... as if we were underaged again. haha.
i had to work today. the thing that sucks about medicine is that most other professions consider today a holiday, even though it's not. the roads were so empty this morning that i flew to work, and then i went on to have the busiest day of clinic i've ever had. blah. of course i had to keep reminding myself that after i finish residency i'll be joining the masses of ppl who take long weekends off. oh wait. i'll be taking LOTS of extra days off b/c i won't be working full time. ho ho ho!
after work gopooh and i had dinner w/ his family at the melting pot, where i stuffed my face just like i did all weekend. it was so good, but sooo bad, b/c once again, i could feel my stomach stretching inside. ouch. after that we watched some fireworks from folding reclining chairs outside. if it weren't for the loud popping right above my head, i would've fallen asleep! and i'm still really sleepy, so i'm going to end this entry and get into bed. er, rather, i'm going to end this entry and catch up on some general hospital. ta ta!