June 25, 2008
· Filed under Medical
Despite what TV would have you believe, residency rarely involves saving lives. In fact, sometimes I feel like a large part of pediatric residency is treating viral URIs.
However, on my current rotation, my job is to go to deliveries and resuscitate babies. Often, babies really don’t need any help at all. But a few days ago, a baby came out limp and blue with a low heart rate, and I had the privilege of giving positive pressure ventilation and (amazingly, to me) the baby came around perfectly and was being held by mom a few minutes later. Although I obviously understand the physiology behind this, it’s amazing to watch a limp, blue baby become pink and crying thanks to something I did. Ridiculous.
Other exciting news:
1. Got my first intubation
2. Halfway through Step 3 (taking second half of test tomorrow)
3. Start 8 days of vacation on July 1
4. Last call of intern year will be this Sunday!!!
June 8, 2008
· Filed under Life, Running
So I’ve officially been in training for my first triathlon for a whopping one and a half weeks, and it’s been going quite well. For the month of June my plan is to take time off from running while I start building a base in both swimming and biking. This past week I biked 30 minutes on Monday, 35 minutes on Wednesday, and 45 minutes (in blistering heat) on Saturday, and I swam for 25 minutes on Thursday and Sunday. Swimming is obviously the hardest. I can swim seemingly endless laps in breast stroke, but crawl is more tiring. Definitely need to work on my arm and core strength.
Had a great weekend off with my husband. Got home around 10 am Friday morning after being on all night and slept all day. Woke up around 7 pm (!) and headed over to the Arlington Greek Festival with my husband and two friends. Very happily gorged myself on a gyros, greek salad, rice pilaf, spinach pie, and several delicious desserts. Despite sleeping for 10 hours during the day, I still managed to sleep until 10 am the next day. Went and bought some much-needed groceries from Trader Joe’s and then went to the Sheepfold and enjoyed the outdoors (and the dogs!) until the heat became too much for me. Managed a 45 minute bike ride despite the 95 degree temperature. Spent the evening at a wonderful barbecue for one of my husband’s friends. Got up this morning and went for a great swim before heading over to dim sum. So yummy. Spent this afternoon putting the A/C units in and studying. Now I’m looking forward to watching the Lakers/Celtics game tonight!
June 4, 2008
· Filed under Medical, Running
I started a ridiculously busy rotation today at a different hospital with a new set of residents, and it’s a little bit stressful to say the least. Add to this the fact that I haven’t run in over a week, that I’m taking Step 3 (yet another big medical test) in a few weeks, working on several projects for my residency and trying to decide what to do with the rest of my life, and you might start to get an idea of my stress level. Apparently my husband has even noticed (and perhaps subtly hinted) that I’m slightly grumpier than usual…
I’ve finally decided that it’s time to take a true break from running and let my plantar fasciitis heal. It must be more serious than I thought because even without running for a week, it’s still pretty painful at the end of each day. In place of running, I’ve decided to start training for a triathlon by working on my biking and swimming. I used to be a pretty good swimmer as a child, but I’ve certainly lost any swimming fitness that I once had because I found swimming for 20 minutes completely exhausting the other day. I guess I need to work on my upper body strength a little. I’m kind of excited for the new challenge that a triathlon will present.
Unfortunately, I find swimming and biking are a little more difficult to fit in than running. So far I’ve found two pools that I can use. The hours of one are 7 am to 5 pm and the other is 11 am to 8 pm, which isn’t too bad, but it’s still a challenge if I end up working 7:30 am to 7:30 pm. I also get a little nervous about biking in the dark or in the pouring rain so I find that I have to plan out my workouts more than previously.
I was going to write more about my new rotation, but I find myself drifting off to sleep even as I try to type this… Time for bed.
