A genuine smile to the unimportant

2003-02-05 - 7:33 a.m.

While ibuprofen may do wonders for cramps, it's doing absolutely nothing for this headache.

I'm still getting used to this ID rotation. It's interesting because this team is a consult service only. They don't manage any patients. They get called up by other teams who feel out of their league and swoop in, capes flaring, to come to the rescue. We round in the afternoon. The residents and the students see the patients during the day, work 'em up, decide what they think is best, then in the afternoon they present that patient to the rest of the team and we all come to a conclusion and write an official consult note. If the patient is particularly bad off we may come back the next day to make sure things are going all right, otherwise we sign off. Thanks for the consult, latah. I've never been on a team like this. I'm used to following a patient for the full course of their hospital stay. This doesn't give me much time to make a difference. Besides, every single person on the team knows more about ID than I do. I guess I'm mostly there for the learning experience. The good thing about having a brain like a seive and loving to learn is that I can learn the same things over and over and still be happy. But really, it's hard because we only see patients who are having a complicated course. It takes me a while to get everything sorted out and figure out what's going on. Then I finally get it worked out and we're done with them and moving on to the next patient. I feel like I'm constantly playing catch-up.

This morning I'm having a discussion with Scotch and two pharmacy students about HIV. This is a subject I really dislike. I'm not really sure why. Well, first of all, it's constantly changing. There is so much research going on in this field that there are new drugs and new recommendations and new guidelines every week. It's really hard to keep up. I'm not ready for the discussion. I'm here in the library and as soon as I decide to wrap up this entry I'm going to go try cram my brain full of facts about HIV.

I talked to Tigger yesterday! I talked to her all the way home. I really can't wait until April. I think I'm going to hang out there for a whole week. It looks like everything is going to work out just fine. There is one night where transportation and lodging are a bit sticky, but there is still time to work that out.

I've been telling more and more people about the Quincy thing. I figure the more people I tell, the more real it becomes. I still haven't talked to my parents about it much, but we are going up to see it on Saturday. I told Tigger about it yesterday and she was not too enthusiastic. She kept asking, "Won't you be lonely?" She was born and raised in San Francisco, definitely a city girl. Maybe I will be, who knows? I told my brother yesterday, too. My poor brother. I feel bad because...heh, never mind. Is it sad to be too embarrassed about something to mention it in my journal? Oh well. Anyway, he was surprised but supportive. His main concerns were do they have fast enough internet access and do I think I can live there without getting sucked into my family's weirdness. I told him I do not plan on moving in with them and I do believe I can avoid being sucked in. And as for internet access, I don't know, but I can probably survive without DSL. I also told Dr. X about it in clinic last Friday. I have no idea why I was being such a blabber mouth to him. I guess he just has this way of looking interested that inspires me to spill the beans. But he was very supportive of it too. But on the other hand he is a family practice doctor so he isn't too into the critical care business anyway.