Right Place at the Right Time

This week has been all about networking. I attended two holiday parties yesterday. The first party was a luncheon thrown by the Pediatrician. The second party was a dinner thrown by the Primary Care office (my second rotation).

I miss working with the Pediatrician already. He's encouraging me to enter Pediatrics. I jokingly told him that I'd love to work with female adolescents and he said, "well, I know Dr. so and so over at *** hospital..." I was just trying to prove the point that I really don't enjoy injecting little babies with vaccines! And all the pooping/peeing/vomiting and crying that goes along with peds!

I do have a strong interest in working with adolescents. I always have. I didn't realize it, but there definitely is a speciality in pediatrics that focuses on adolescent health. By the end of the luncheon, the doc was referring to me as a "future adolescent specialist". I intend to keep in touch with him. I took him up on his offer to write a recommendation as well.

At the Primary Care dinner, I was seated next to the Korean interpretor (that also speaks Japanese). I worked with her in the Chinatown office. We had fun trying to communicate in Japanese...I had moments where I actually felt like I was back in Japan. I was surprised to find that I was the only student at the dinner. The doc has let me know that he's interested in talking to me once I graduate. Who knew my time in Japan would serve me so well?!?!

I worked at Bogota tonight. There was a holiday party with 75 attendees. It turned out the party was for the Pediatrics floor of a major hospital in Brooklyn! I couldn't believe it. I wound up meeting with the Pediatrician that set up the party. She was extremely nice and extended an invitation to join her at the hospital one day to check it out. I told her about my interest in adolescents...and she was very encouraging.

I will admit that it is overwhelming to think that one year from now I will be working. Overwhelming in the sense that I have so much more to experience and opportunities are already starting to present themselves. Overwhelming in that I'm going to be making big decisions in 2007.

What area of medicine do I want to pursue?
Will I specialize?
Post-grad fellowship?
Hospital or private office?
Long Island? Brooklyn? Queens? NYC?
Out of New York?
Overseas?

Trust me...I'm really not stressing about this stuff. I just find it remarkable...life changes so fast.

And it's about being in the right place at the right time.

One Year Later

Life is so different than it was one year ago.

I am no longer shackled to my desk.
I sleep more than 4 hours a night.
I am no longer haunted by biochemistry or pharmacology in my dreams.
I don't sit on my butt for hours on end. In fact, I rarely ever sit down.
I don't see the same exact faces day in/day out, every single day anymore.
I don't overindulge in coffee anymore.
I don't worry as much as I did last year.

In fact, my greatest strength was not learned in the classroom. It was learned throughout my life and strongly ingrained during my travels overseas. It is my ability to trust my instincts...to go with my gut feeling. As well as my ability to relate to people. Again, this was a skill I honed while traveling. Growing up, I was the shy kid that didn't care to interact and talk to a lot of people. Nowadays, I can't stop talking to people.

After every rotation, the preceptor fills out an evaluation form. So far, all three evaluators have commented on my ability to relate to people. Again, it's not something you learn in school. It's something you learn from life experience. And over the last few months, I've realized that all of my ups and downs in life have been preparing me for this role.

People trust me when they talk to me in my white coat. Parents trust me to take care of their kids. It's a huge responsibility and I've been loving every minute of it.

One year later, I can say that all of the sacrifices I made last year were worth it.

One year later...I'm happy.

Bogota

I've been hostessing on Saturday nights at Bogota for the last couple of months.

I have to say that it's more stressful dealing with hungry people than it is to deal with sick people!

Especially at one of the hottest restaurants in Brooklyn!

www.bogotabistro.com

As Good As It Gets

I've got three more days at the pediatrics office, two days of exams and presentations and then a 2-week vacation. My next rotation is Long Term Care...which is going to be the extreme opposite of Pediatrics.

I didn't think I'd enjoy working with screaming, whining, irritable, snotty-nosed, temper tantrum throwing little monsters. But, I do.

I especially love working with adolescents. I always have. I spent five years as a camp counselor, then two years teaching JHS kids in Japan, two more years teaching about HIV/AIDS to elementary thru college level kids. I seriously considered a career as a school psychologist but the more I learned of the profession the more I realized it wasn't for me. I wanted to be able to interact with troubled kids on a grander scale.

In the last 4 weeks I've dealt with kids suffering with ADD/ADHD, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and a kid with a very rare feeding disorder. A couple of girls with anorexia and one who is morbidly obese. I've seen kids with sickle cell disease, celiac disease, mono, strep throat, pink eye, asthma, pneumonia, RSV, URI, scabies, flea bites, warts, sever's disease, broken toes/fingers, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, croup, whooping cough (yes, it's still around and you need the vaccine!), and the most recent phenomena is E. coli in a teenage boy after eating at Taco Bell.

These are the most common pathologies I've encountered over the last 4 weeks. I typically see between 10-20 patients a day. It's a nice, comfortable pace. The doc spends at least 15 minutes with each patient. He doesn't rush. He doesn't cut corners to save time. He is very thorough and treats all of his patients as if they were his own.

So, I've tried to adopt the same disposition. Some patients are harder than others to deal with. But it's usually the parents that create the most frustration. I'm working in an area that is predominantly upper-middle class and some parents bring their live-in nannies with them to the office! It's nice working with a population that has the means to properly care for their children, but I realize that the majority of the children in this world aren't so fortunate. Nevertheless, it's been a wonderful learning experience.

The Doc I'm working with is wonderful and I'm going to miss him. He's now telling patients that he's going to be depressed when my classmate and I leave. And, I believe him. The three of us have great chemistry together and my classmate and I recognize how lucky we are to be working with a doc that loves to teach us. And we tell him so. He's been practicing medicine for 30 years and treats both us as his peers. He recognizes our weaknesses and points us in the right direction. He expects a lot from us and makes us think. Yet does this in a very supportive way. He didn't like the way he was treated as a resident and wishes medicine was nicer to students.

This is the experience I was hoping for...this is as good as it gets.