I'm on my medicine rotation, now.  I was sort of hoping to not like it, but I do.  All that time to think about problems and then actually work on them RIGHT NOW.  Much more immediate feedback than research.  And it is a very social process - I spent the first three days figuring out the team dynamics.  And the computer and the hospital layout and the schedule.  Now I'm actually working on the medicine part.

That first three days, I felt, was a substandard start.  This past week went a lot better.  And next week I'll do better again.  Unless I get sick.  I'm brain tired from learning so much.  And Huxley waking up every 2 hours for some reason.  Probably to see if I'm there - the kids are pissed at me for being gone so much.

I got through one call night just fine - busy, learning, on the periphery of saving lives.  And then the next two have been kinda dull.  This is good in that people aren't busy dying quickly around me.  This is bad in that those middle hours of the day I just wish I was home and playing with the kids.  Boo.

The schedule is rough, but not brutal.  Perhaps the kids really did toughen me up.  I get up at 5:45 and go in for pre-pre-rounds by myself, pre-rounds with the other students/residents, rounds with the doctor.  Then we write orders and notes and suddenly it is 10:30.  Then the formal teaching part happens with groups and lectures.  Then it is 1.  Sometimes, there are neat procedures to watch and long notes to tackle and new admissions.  Sometimes, there is this lull for a few hours while we wait for tests and consults to come back.  I try to study during that time, but I really just want to go play with the kids.  The earliest we leave is 4 when we can sign responsibility of our patients over to another doctor, but usually it is more like 5 or 6.  I hear next month, in a different hospital, it will be more like 7 or 8.  I go home, eat, lay on the floor and let the kids lay on me, check my email, shower, pack lunch, go to bed.  Repeat 6 days a week.  Good thing it is interesting.

I've lucked out in getting very sweet, personable patients so far.  You know, the old guys who don't want to take their inhaled meds because they'll just be here a day and wouldn't want to waste the hospital's money.  And not the guys with vague 10/10 abdominal pain who are asking for pain medications by name and then jauntily walking down the hall for a cigarette.  And no one has died here.  We've sent some people out to die at other places, though.  And had an equal number of therapeutic admissions - people who magically get better just by being admitted.  I mean, got better by our laying on of hands.  Right.