My Facade Of The Last Week

I had a pretty good weekend, very chill. I hung out with some visiting cousins Saturday, and hung out with the immediate fam as usual on Sunday. It was bittersweet on Sunday, because it was the last Sunday Rog was here, for the summer anyway. He left for LA early this morning.

It was good for me to see so many different family members this weekend. For some reason I've felt more irritable and withdrawn. From people's comments I guess I keep a poised, calm, and relaxed exterior, but a lot of the time I feel a tiny fraction of what I imagine a PTSD victim feels -- hypervigilant, distractible, waiting for something to start. For the past few days I've felt somatic symptoms of anxiety like those I experienced in second year of med school, such as feeling like I could never take a really deep, satisfying breath.

So I think seeing family helped me relax and come out of my shell. And today I worked hard, so I feel better. But still some vague restlessness.

I'll Be There For Yoooooooooou

After 6 years wandering in the wilderness since graduation from college, I've finally found a group of friends that gets together as easily as breathing. Every Tuesday is the regular Quizzo night and it's not like the haphazardly organized Quizzo night I would sometimes propose, it's pretty much every Tuesday. But beyond that, there are other parties or get-togethers for people's birthdays, for people visiting, for big events in people's lives, or just for the hell of it, so that as often as not, I've got a fun social event to go to in the evenings and weekends. In med school people were too busy to socialize weekly, practically, let alone multiple nights of the week. And in New York I had friends individually or by twos or threes, but not a big crew who I could assume I could do things with. *contented sigh.*

We Want the Funk... Give Us the Funk

Let me just say I had a great 24 hours. Last night my special gentleman friend (henceforth known as SGF) and I went to Dmitri's, an awesome Mediterranean seafood place. Run by the guy who left that voicemail for Olga. (Kidding.) (If you don't know what I'm referring to, comment or email me and I'll send it to you.)

Man, I have to get to bed, since I have call tomorrow. Let me explain. No, there is no time, let me sum up.

Dmitri's
Southwark for awesome cocktails last night
Coffee and fresh peaches in Rittenhouse Square this morning
Helping SGF make sausages, which was surprisingly fun
Going to my nephew's birthday party
Going to a boat party and eating this morning's delicious sausages hot off the grill
Riding the El with Karina and SGF
Meeting Rog at Citizens Bank Park, with no problems getting scalped tickets, which were awesome seats for a reasonable price
Phils win!

Today?

Went much better. Intern year is all about making checkboxes and checking them off.

Green Acres

One psychiatry blog I read from time to time used to work in an inpatient psychiatric facility that he nicknamed "Green Acres," but it sounds a little more eccentric than the site of my current rotation.

I've been feeling a tad overwhelmed. It's made worse by the fact that everyone says, "Oh, what an easy rotation you have!" It's true that the hours are good -- roughly 7:45-3 most days of the week. But I feel like I only have a few minutes every day to talk to my patients, which is even less time than I had in the psych ER. Granted, I can see them over time, which is cool, but I still don't feel like I've really gotten to know them. The morning is always just a blur of trying to see patients and assess whatever problems brought them into the hospital, check labs, enter orders into the computer, write notes, write discharge instructions, dictate discharge summaries, and somewhere in there, make sure my med student is having a valuable learning experience. I know, it sounds pretty standard for any inpatient rotation... but I hate the inpatient world. I am so made for outpatient, and that's a year and a half away at least. Meh.

Another Plunge

Sorry for the radio silence lately. I finished up my time in the psych ER and went for a week of vacation in Maine with my family. And now tomorrow... I start inpatient psychiatry. Straight into the loony bin I go.

This is apparently quite a laidback month I'm going into, so I'm not too worried. I am, however, initiating what's become my New Rotation routine. For the first week, I go to bed an hour early each night, since inevitably getting used to a new hospital, a new set of staff, a new set of responsibilities, etc, tires me out. I also make sure to try to eat healthily and exercise and not do too much outside studying and in general take it easy with both working and playing. Here goes.