Happy Thursday! I can't believe I am nearing the end of my second month of intern year! The past two months have been somewhat of a blur, but I am continuing to learn a ton, and even with all the hard work of surgery life, there are a lot of fun times too.
I started off the second month of intern year at a completely different hospital where the general surgery service is run by one intern and two senior residents. The volume is a lot smaller than the location I worked at last month, but I was definitely thankful to have had a super busy first month where I saw and was able to do a lot with help the entire day. At this location, I am the only person covering the floor while the two senior residents and attending physician spend the day in the OR. This was super scary at first, but I am a lot more skilled and able to handle whatever is thrown at me more so than I was during my first month.
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| A few general surgery intern essentials |
The only drawback to this month has been the travel. The hours are a bit better since I can turn off my pager by 6pm and be done for the day, but it's a lot different when I'm on call. During the days I am on call, I come to my main hospital and work a full day, but then I leave around 5pm in order to go to the hospital where I worked last month and I spend the night there handling the surgery patients while taking in new admits and consults. It's just myself and a senior resident at night, so things can get a bit busy sometimes. When the interns arrive in the morning, I head back to the hospital where I am working now and have to round on all my patients, type up the notes, and then I can finally be post-call. Last month, I knew all the patients going into the evening, so I could relax and maybe take a small nap, but now I spend more time making sure I learn my patients when I am on call. Every now and then I get lucky with a couple of hours of sleep though, so I really can't complain.
Next week, I'll be starting at a busy hospital and trauma center where I will spend the next two months continuing general surgery with trauma on my call nights. Although my program has multiple hospitals, I kind of enjoy switching it up every now and then, and I'm looking forward to some new experiences. Plus, I have yet to place a chest tube, so I'm hoping I will meet my program's requirement of five within the next couple of months.
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| Golden weekends involve having fun and wearing sparkly dresses |
As for maintaining work-life balance, I still take full advantage of being post-call and the rare days off. I haven't been on call as much this month as I was previously, but I was blessed to have a golden weekend last weekend, and I will have another this weekend. This past weekend, I enjoyed a night out clubbing where I danced and got super sweaty, hung out with some of my GA-PCOM family, was treated to an awesome meal at a great restaurant by my roommate and his girlfriend (can you believe I've lived here two months and never had a chance to really talk to the person I live with?!?!), and I even went to the movies and saw Crazy Rich Asians. It was an amazing and very much needed break, and I am so very thankful that this upcoming weekend will also be another golden weekend!
That pretty much sums up the past month. Although the change isn't drastic, I'm starting to realize that as each day passes, I am growing as a physician, and I really am enjoying the surgery life and all that comes with it. I'll make sure to keep everyone updated as I find time, but I appreciate all who continue to follow along with me on this crazy journey. As a thank you to all my wonderful readers, I'll be hosting a giveaway in my next post, so stay tuned!!!!
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