Free Weekend

Since the last post, I had my first out of town visitor. Jake was in town for business in Eugene, and was able to hang out last Friday and Sunday. I guess Plowman came a while back, but that was before I was moved in, so Jake takes the prize for first guest (as he so mentioned). Jake and I went to Stanford together and even though he's been in Nashville for a good chunk of years, I've managed to see him every once in a while. Glad to see that my move to Portland hasn't changed that dynamic. Caught up with a quick tour of the city (which basically means, walking to Powell's- oh and in case you are wondering "whoa my boss is naked" is in stock at Powell's, which is pretty good considering that the book is only distributed online), happy hour at Jakes (where else would we go) before heading to Eugene. On his way back, capped off a great visit with a run down the riverside and bridges, then with burgers and beers at Bridgeport brewery.

Had this weekend free. Our service is light at the moment, and co-intern and I are starting to get the hang of the VA, so the sr and the attg decided it was cool for us and the med students to take the wknd off... so finally put the last piece of furniture together. Some pics need to be hung, but here are a few pics below for those curious. Its a studio type of place in the Pearl district. However, even my studio is probably bigger than most peoples 1-2 br in new york. I'm also 1 of 60 units in the building, which is a lot bigger than the Henry st building that has 10 units total. I definitely miss how I was able to get to know and see all my neighbors in the Brooklyn apt- here, i'm lucky if I see 1 person. But its a newer type of place, nice kitchen, garbage disposal and in unit laundry, so its easily the nicest place I've rented in my life. We'll see if by the end of the year, I can still afford it. And if you're wondering what the "next year in jerusalem" pic is, thats in lobby of the building, which is pretty random. Jake says that what all the Jews say when they reunite, I guess I can see that. What doesn't necessarily make sense is that the building's name is The McKenzie, which doesn't sound that Jewish. Whatever.

The weekend was spent being fairly lazy, besides putting together particle board, went to the portland international beer festival, held a couple blocks from where I live, and which is apparently nothing compared to the Oregon beer festival happening next weekend... theme here in portland is beer btw. Today, hiked with some co-interns Angel's Rest, a trail off the Columbia River Gorge. Its pretty amazing that in 20-25 minutes by car, one can get out of civilization and into the woods.

I will say that ensuring long weekends are productive and maximized is harder work than one would think. You never know who's free that weekend, and you're so tired from the week before that its easy to just recover your sleep.

the entry way into the apt

.the largest kitchen i've ever had

kitchen/living room

brooklyn love (thanks todd).

post-call

I should be asleep at this point, 11:30pm, because I have to work tomorrow by 7 AM, which means waking up by 6 or so to make a 6:30 bus to the VA. However, today was post-call day, which meant I was out at 12pm, got home and passed out until 8pm tonight. Unintentional, but necessary after the night I experienced, with many issues popping up with the cross-cover patients, and getting 4 admissions relatively late in the game. There is nothing like getting paged as a starting intern for a cross-cover patient whose heart has stopped beating for 5 seconds and being asked what to do. I mean, I was still in school but 1 month ago...

Yesterday was our first call with the current team. Our new resident, my co-intern, me, and two eager medical students. Its amazing to see the students in this situation and know that barely 1 year ago, I was in their same shoes, eager to help out and trying to impress their resident and attending. Its exciting to be in that position to be a role model and try to teach the students. Unfortunately, not sure how much I am teaching them at this point!

Long call, like life, is made up of slow parts of the day, when there are no patients being admitted, rounds are done, and notes completed, you are messing around with the team-- to 30 minutes before call ends and you end up with a bunch of new patients. At least thats how it seemed yesterday. Going from thinking we'd be out of here and going home to sleep, to being lucky to get 1.5 hours of sleep is a sharp mental hurdle to get over. The worst is when you don't have a call room key and you're left pondering if sleeping in the car is the best option. Or when you have a patient that is on 50 medications and you have to go through them 1 by 1. But we got through it, and now I'm still up typing. In 4 days, the cycle will repeat itself, and I'll be hoping to go faster. and get some sleep. Still wondering how we fit in reading and studying as an intern.. thats for another night.

Starting Internship

Hello from PDX (Portland)!

This year is a big year for me. For one, I turned big 3-0. Two, I graduated medical school. Three, I made the move back to the west coast from New York to Portland, Oregon to start internship. I still sometimes wonder if I made the right choice, moving back west. New York became home to me in many respects and while I am originally from California, I have spent the majority of my adult life on the East Coast. I've moved around a lot, but leaving New York was probably the hardest thing to actually do when the time came. I've been blessed to have such great family and friends to help me through it, especially my cousin Viv who came out this May to visit and give me outside insight to the big move, and to my friend Andy who helped me pack up the apt as I made my way out of town this June.

So one piece of advice my cousins husband, who happens to be a newly minted attending physician, imparted to me prior to starting internship was to pick up a new hobby. I'm hoping to keep up this diary this year. With my geographic isolation and relative newness to Portland fresh in my mind, I am hoping to keep in touch via this site. Everyone has ideas and thoughts about how medical internship year goes. The goal is to see if I can reflect on my experience through this means, and stay relatively sane. And not break HIPAA in the process.

So here it goes...