My Weekend On-Call

This weekend had its ups and downs.

I got to help do a thoracentesis as I mentioned earlier. I saw how admission to a hospital works. However I really don't think that I learned much. My attending was trying to expose me to as many things as possible so that I would be prepared when I went to the "big hospital" up here. What ended up happening was that I was overwhelmed by all of the things, I didn't get a good grasp of any single thing. I will only know later if this experience has helped me.

Another bad thing was that my attending and I got on each other's nerves by the end of the weekend. This is partially due to my personality and partially due to his. He had mentioned earlier that usually by the end of his weekends on-call, he gets annoyed at people constantly needing something from him. Our housing situation was setup so that I stayed with him in a house that the hospital owned. Of course, we had our own bedrooms but it was weird staying with him. It also meant that we spent more time together (probably a bit too much). By the end of the weekend, I was feeling pretty crappy because I felt like I wasn't doing well with anything.

So, together, it didn't make for a good combination. Which sucks when I am the medical student and he is giving me my grade.

I guess my overall feeling is, "eh." I could have only done the call for one day and had gotten the same thing out of it. Kind of sad because I would have enjoyed spending the time with Mike instead.

It was the non-hospital experiences this weekend that I really liked. My attending thinks that I will become a pediatric intensivist. Interestingly, this is a field that I have considered and really like. But, who knows. I like lots of things. Cardiology is also pretty interesting to me. What I have figured out is that I am going to specialize in "something."

Editor's note: As I read back over this post, I realize that it sounds very negative. I am not changing it because I want to be able to read back over it at a much later time and see if I still think the same thing. So, dear readers, please don't think that nothing good came of this and it was a waste of time. As I get into a better mood, or as I enter the "big hospital," I may realize all of the good things that I had while I was on-call with him.