Making Decision Making Easier

My new internship started this week. I'm required to write a journal entry for each week, so I thought I would share this one.

Week 1 – Inpatient Service
I had high anticipation for this rotation because Internal Medicine was a field that I thought I wanted to go into. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any patients because somehow all of my preceptor’s patients had been discharged the previous day. Instead I was shown around the many different areas of the hospital and got a very good foundational idea of how the hospital is arranged and interacts with each other.
I also had a talk with one of the physicians about his feelings on his profession in general. He basically summed up all of the non-verbal impressions I had gotten from former physicians I shadowed by candidly telling me how miserable his field is. He told me straight that it can be a very painful profession and that I should be “pre-law.” When I asked my preceptor if it was likely that I would meet a physician that would say differently she said, “probably not.”
I don’t consider today to be a bad experience though. I was happy that the people I met were so straightforward with me. The main question I wanted answered going into this internship was “do physicians invest too much into their profession.” I found out today that it seems like they really do. As of now I’ve determined that being a PA would provide me with enough professional fulfillment, but at the same time require less of an investment of my personal life.



Yeah... I didn't hear one positive thing about being a physician. My nurse practitioner preceptor said that she keeps hearing that all the pre-med student want to become PAs and that it worried her. But at the same time she by no means endorsed the physician profession.

Trying to Get Hawt

I'm not sure when this happened but all of a sudden I became 6'4'' and 210lbs. The height part wasn't the surprise. Forever, even during the early college years, I was about 185lbs - I think...

I've been now exercising for about 7 months - not that intensely - and I haven't seen any real changes in my weight. I think I have put on more muscle than I had before, but lately in pictures I see a gut and double chin. WHEN THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!

I think one thing that might have happened was that I did put on muscle, but somehow never burned any fat.
This could be because I still had a very high carb diet - especially loads and loads of sugar from orange juice - , which kept my insulin levels up, which we all know suppresses the break down of fat.

I have since decided to try the Atkins diet for a couple of weeks. I'm going to see how low I can bring my weight and then gradually move back to my former diet and see if I can maintain my status.

I've been on it for a couple of days and I already see weight loss. It's pretty neat. I'm pretty sure I'm still getting enough calories per day, and not just being anorexic. I'm also monitoring my body fat %, which when this all started was about 16-17%. Gross...

I'll keep you updated.

TV Woes

I wish I wasn't sitting here in bed watching Californication by myself, being pathetic and thinking how David Duchovney is hotter at 47 than I ever will in my life. Ugh, I wish I had good hair. Fuck you DHT.

I gave up watching Dexter season 2. I flew through season 1, but the fact that I keep falling asleep during season 2 is telling. How unfortunate. At least Weeds kept its mojo going through the season.

Hmm, shall I watch more Californication or should I watch some more Lost season 3. Ugh, the first half of season 3 was not good at all. More Californication it is then.

Start of Semester Stress

While passed out after surgery I got this e-mail from my advisor:

Dr. W,

I was not able to send your name to *Hospital* for an internship as we are
required to give priority to students trying to meet the 3 credit
requirement for the BIMS (Biomedical Science) major.

Sorry.

Dr. Anchient

1. I am a Biomedical Science major.
2. I have only completed 2 of the 3 required internship credits.
3. This is my last semester.

I e-mailed him back pointing out the obvious like my major and the fact I didn't sign up for this internship electively. Does he think I have nothing better to do with my time than to sign up for internships. Honestly, this man has proven to be so useless to me over the past 4 years. He never gives me advice about my schedule, he never tries to help me figure out what I'm doing with the rest of my life, but he obsesses over everyone else's life. Strike that, he obsesses over all of the girls' lives. All the guys hate him cause he totally ignores us. We'll see how this one plays out. If he gives a junior an internship spot over me, then I'm going to the dean, which won't accomplish anything because I think my advisor is retiring next year anyway. Evidently he has decided that 43 years of teaching at the same place is enough. Too bad I got him in the years he lost his mind.

Post-Op

Having the wisdom teeth removed hasn't proven to be the most terrible thing so far. At first I was totally miserable, sitting in bed trying to sleep without any pain meds with these gross gauze pads shoved in my mouth. Then my dad came back with some hydrocodone, but said that the surgeon instructed me to only take them an hour after eating. I had never heard of taking medicine a certain amount of time after eating, only taking medication with food. I wasn't going to chance it though because if I threw up I knew I would never take it again, and the torture would last indefinitely. Plus, I was in no good state of mind when these instructions were given, since I was coming out of anesthesia and all. At the time the only thing I was thinking about was asking the surgeon if I could shadow him one day. I'm just a loser.

Once I got some oatmeal in me and could take my hydrocodone I was good to go. And no, I don't mean I was high. I actually don't see what the big fuss is all about. I didn't get dizzy, light-headed, high, confused. The pain just simply went away. If anything I would just get tired and sleep for an hour or two. I guess this might have something to do with the fact that I never "crave" alcohol, become addicted to going to the gym or get a "runner's high." Not having a addictive personality seems to be a good thing.

I'm also not oozing blood anymore. Which means I shouldn't have to expect a blood drool stain on my shirt. That was fairly gross.

The only bad thing is that my cheeks look like they have tennis balls shoved under them. I'm petrified that the swelling isn't going to go down, but everyone assures me that it will. Ice doesn't prove to be much help. Oh well, we'll see what happens. I must say though it's a very strange sensation to have these fluid filled pouches hanging from your face.

You Know It's Time for School to Start Again When...

You call your oral surgeon to ask what you have to do in preparation for your wisdom tooth extraction the next day just to find out that it's not tomorrow, but in two days.

I legit thought today was Thursday. I've been on break for too long. I have no concept of time.

I need to go back to school.