the zebra that wasn't

what if your patient has the worst diagnosis. not because it is something rare and horrible but just because it is.  my patient from day one of IM is still in the hospital and if he's lucky he'll leave tomorrow but still... he walked into the hospital and although he'll walk out his life has drastically changed. i'm sad for him. sad for his family. i was there. he was my first H&P of IM. i won't forgot him... he taught me not just about medicine but about being there. and about how the nicest patient's have the worst diagnosis.

IM is a quarter over which is kind of amazing. tomorrow is the last day with my resident and she's taught me a lot. i've gotten to work with three different attendings and they all had different styles. i've seen a variety of patients. mostly the basics but some interesting cases too.

i'm feeling reflective but its a good feeling. third year is winding down and mostly i feel like i still have so much to learn. but every day i hope i'm making progress.

Day 2 and my (first) zebra = I heart medicine

So I'm only two days into medicine and so far I have a very interesting patient. I can't go into details because HIPPA and stuff but he's younger than I am and in multi-organ failure without a known cause. The obvious and regulars have been ruled out so now we are looking for something more exotic. Sucks for him, cool for me. He's an ICU patient and being only an MS III we are not suppose to follow ICU patient's but somehow I got him anyhow and I'm so glad I did. I actually want to be at work and am reminded of why I went into this, medicine is interesting, the human body is downright amazing and I am SO LUCKY to be living my dream.  I just hope that my patient's zebra is something reversible and/or treatable and that he will go on to live his life and I'll learn much in the process.

Yesterday was also interesting as it seems the "flavor de jour" was cocaine abuse. Maybe it was the patients tribute to Whitney's passing as my Attending postulated... but whatever it was we had no less than three admits for some type of cocaine related complication. Lesson of the day, love your heart, don't do cocaine and happy Valentine's Day.

Also the residents are great. We have noon conference and/or med student lectures pretty much every day and we get to do stuff but are still told to go home early/ go study and given minimal scut work. So all in all, I'm two days in and very happy to be here. Medicine rocks. San Francisco is great and I live in the same state as Dr. Boyfriend once again. All in all, life is good!