The first days…

and weeks…

Apologies for the long delay. It will, if you have talked to me since June 19, surprise you not at all that I’ve been a little bit overwhelmed with work. Here are two stories from my first weeks as an intern.

I’ve started on my ambulatory rotation, and on Fridays I’m in one clinic in the morning and another, all the way across town, in the afternoon. I’ve been biking to work most days, and figured this would be no exception. Google maps said 30 minutes, and despite my previous experiences getting lost due to low-visability signage, I presumed that it was true. After biking incredibly slowly up one of the steeper hills I’ve attempted since being here, I realized that I would never make it to clinic on time. Huffing and puffing, I stopped, called the clinic, and said that my morning clinic had run a little late (which was true), and said that I would be there a few minutes late (which was also true). I walked my bike up the rest of the ridiculous hills, and then road the downhill/flat portion of the route to clinic. I arrived sweaty and chagrined… The next week I figured out a bus.

There is nothing wrong with crying at work, if you do it in the right place. I learned this during my first call shift, totally overwhelmed with all of the things that my colleagues promised me that I wasn’t expected to be able to do alone, but that I nonetheless expected myself to be able to do alone. One particularly charmed chief resident gave me the door code to a call room, told me to get myself some water, and let me collect myself for a bit before I continued seeing patients. Everyone was right, and my second shift was astronomically better, but having that space was so important.

I’m optimistic to be posting more, but probably shorter, bits about residency in the coming weeks. I have only a few weeks left on ambulatory, and it’s been promised that life with only get crazier from here, but I’m finally starting to settle in. Pictures of the dog and cats hopefully also coming soon…