It’s funny that I was talking about physician wellness and stuff yesterday. Today while on our way to check on a patient in labor at the hospital, my attending and I got into a conversation about that very topic. He acknowledged that the days after his call shifts aren’t great and that he isn’t at his best and he told me to consider the possibility of call-shifts being a part of the rest of my life when choosing a specialty. We talked a bit about wellness and how students and younger doctors seem to, and are able to, put more emphasis on personal wellbeing, whereas for his generation it was all about the work, and he agrees that things are moving in a better direction. (Sometimes I’m concerned he somehow found this website and is reading what I’m writing, but also we did have a conversation yesterday about what it means to be happy and how some TED Talks approached that question, which good have in part prompted this).
On the way back from the hospital he asked me about what I did in my gap years. He was particularly interested in my work in street medicine, and we got into a conversation about homelessness, and he asked what I thought the solution was. Obviously, I didn’t have a good answer for him, but I gave my thoughts.
Pretty standard clinic day. It is nice to see some of the patients who are later in their pregnancies so I’m seeing them for the second or third time already. I still feel like I’m learning a lot every day which I guess is a good thing, but also shows how little I knew coming into this.
We did have one delivery in the evening. It was a long labor, but thankfully the patient was eventually able to deliver, though maybe somewhat reluctantly, without any major complications or interventions. My attending had to apply sutures again and told me next time I would be the one to do it…
Just by the looks of it, suturing live flesh with fluids and things moving around is very different from the practice I get on the rubbery flesh of my suture kit. Maybe I’ll pick up some meat from the store and practice a bit on that. I am concerned, but I do want to be able to do it.
I also met this nurse who was into anime (she was wearing an Akatsuki scrub cap), we got into this whole conversation about it which was pretty refreshing. She talked about how she’ll sometimes watch with her kids, who are pretty young, so they watch it dubbed which she likes so she doesn’t need to be completely dialed in. Reminded me of Dad, just in the sense that she watches anime with her kids and likes to watch it dubbed, but it sounds like she was the one who got her kids into it.
It was around lunchtime when my attending and I went to the hospital, so I had lunch there even though I made a sandwich. They were serving some hot Mexican food. Then after clinic and before the delivery I met up with a very good friend of mine on her way up north and we got pizza at this place that was recommended to me. They do these Indian-inspired pizzas, so we got a split pie: half chicken tikka masala, half butter chicken. It was pretty good, but I wasn’t blown away. I wanted them to be a bit saucier. My sandwich is in the refrigerator.
Tomorrow, we have a Zoom conference thing with the school, basically a research symposium. It should be interesting, but also my attending is inviting me to join him for a laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy in the afternoon, so I am hoping I’ll be allowed to leave the symposium early.
nANIMOv 