Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Grand Rounds 32

This week's grand rounds over at Mudfud. If his schedule is accurate, he's sleeping way too late.

posted by GamecockDoc @ 2:42 PM 0 comments

Contradictions

The further I get along in med school the more I notice the contradictory emotions tied up in this field. It becomes most obvious when a patient has an interesting and devastating disease process. I find myself conflicted -- excited about seeing something new and the prospect of learning but saddened by the patient's suffering. People give medical students conflicting messages too. Be empathetic and don't become hardened, but don't get emotionally involved and don't bring work home. It's impossible to do both. How do you find an acceptable balance?

I'm doing my surgery rotation now and I often find myself conflicted. Whenever my trauma pager goes off I get a little psyched to see what is going to come through the door but then feel sympathy for the patient when they arrive. The other night I had the opportunity to go to an organ procurement. Teams flew in from MUSC and Duke to do the surgery, and I stayed late to watch. It was fascinating... seeing a group of doctors from different institutions work together to accomplish something, seeing the techniques used, going over the anatomy. But then I would step back and remember that this was a 13 year old girl and a wave of sadness came over me. I just don't know how I'm supposed to distance myself from the humanity of these situations. And I'm not sure that I want to.

posted by GamecockDoc @ 2:14 PM 0 comments

Monday, May 02, 2005

Grand Rounds

This week's Grand Rounds over at Dr. Tony's. Some pretty cool stuff to check out.

posted by GamecockDoc @ 4:12 PM 0 comments

Things I do while bored

Getting bored is never a good thing, esp here at the hospital. I find myself doing everything except what I should be. For example, right now I should be reading up on CCAM lesions so as not to look stupid on rounds tomorrow, but instead I'm watching Bing Crosby movies and surfing the internet. To give myself the illusion of being productive, I've started this blog. I always wanted to be the journalling type of girl but could never actually stick with it. I buy the things and write a few entries and then promptly lose and forget about the book. This will hopefully be a better way to go about it since I'm always on the computer anyway. We'll see...

posted by GamecockDoc @ 3:02 PM 0 comments