End of psychiatry rotation.

09-24-06-->09-30-06

Hello all!

This week has been the last week of psychiatry rotation. It’s amazing how fast this experience has gone by! Besides being exposed to different psychiatric conditions, I have learned a few things I would keep for the rest of my life:
1. Interviewing skills! I started feeling like I conducted the longest H&P in the world, but ended up feeling very confident in interviewing patients and actually enjoying myself a whole lot!
2. Understanding that the more I put in, the more I learn, and the more I enjoy. Not that I didn’t know this before, but… it was so pronounced this time around! I really put in as much as I could in and just loved the learning process.
3. Never underestimating myself or put myself down! This is actually the biggest thing—I don’t want to sound pompous, but what I found was that I know a lot, have great work ethics, have good abilities, and always have room to learn. I will work very hard on keeping that in mind when I encounter situations where I feel like I don’t know anything (which naturally occurs at this state of my education.)

With mom’s encouragement, I made brownies to everyone at the unit. The brownies turned out great, and everyone told me I should sell them and pay for med school that way :o). I told Ronit that the brownies were a family secret from… Ruth Sirkis (for my non-Israeli readers, Ruth Sirkis wrote many excellent cook books that are still used in most Israeli Kitchens). Ronit had a good laugh, and I explained the joke for the rest of the staff and they just looked at me funny. Oh well… To mark the end of my rotation, and the end of the resident’s time at the unit, Doctor R. took us to a nice restaurant yesterday. That was so nice of him!

I have many good things to say about this rotation, and I can definitely say that I have gained a lot from it.

Do you know what my body decided to do on the free weekend I have this week? I have caught an awful cold! I felt quite horrible at work yesterday. I tried not to breath on patients and kept washing my hands like I had OCD. Oh well…I guess it’s the beginning of flu season. It is very gray outside at the moment, and quite chilly. I stepped out with Vega not too long ago and was very happy to have my nice cup of tea with me to drink as I was walking with her. Brrrrrr!

Well, I am going to go make some Matzo Brie for a small get together we are all having—perhaps it’s not traditional to make this for a party, but I didn’t get a chance to buy some potato chips or something of the sort to bring… so they’ll have to deal with trying new food.

Enjoy the week; I’ll give you an update regarding my family rotation next week.

Tzom Kal, VeGmar Chatima Tova,

Reut

I am not discombobulated, honest!

(mom and dad requested this picture to be put online :o) This is me when I was about 3 years old... I look like KC and Vega, don't I?)
09/17/06-->09/23/06

Hello everyone,

This week went by really fast! I saw a whole lot at work, and had a chance to hang out in Crisis and see more, which is nice. Next week is our last week for this rotation… I really can’t get over on how fast the time has passed. The busier we get in the rotation, the faster it flies by and the more I feel I learn.

The interesting things I seen this week were: another schizoaffective disorder, major depressive disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. It is amazing how our brains work— I am completely in awe.

My interviewing skills are improving. During one of my interviews, my resident came in to observe me. She said it was pretty good—I personally thought I could have done it better, but it was good to get some feedback. I am happy with what I am doing, and it is nice to know that I will only improve from now on.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but in the psych unit there is an Israeli women working. In any case, for the past 2 weeks the people at work kept telling me about her and saying that I have got to meet her and how nice she is etc. etc. I finally did meet her, and we had a good time talking. She is from Hadera, which is 10 minutes from where we used to live, and she is now married and has a kid. We talked for a while, and it was nice to just chat in Hebrew. She asked me what I was doing for Rosh-Hashanah, and I told her that I had no plan, so she invited me to her in-laws. Therefore, yesterday, I joined a really nice family to celebrate the New Year! I had a good time, and am grateful for their hospitality.

I woke up a bit too late today and chose to go to the animal shelter tomorrow morning instead of today… It was just too comfy in my bed. I attempted to clean my abode, but after lunch I crashed for a long nap. Oh well, I guess my body required some rest.

KC and Vega and doing great—they both got long walks today, and all is good with the world now…

That’s about it for the week— Oh! I suppose I’ll share with you the lovely new word I learned this week: “Discombobulated” It basically means confused, or like the way you feel when you wake up in the morning and you are very disoriented and confused… I suppose it also can mean upset, but this wasn’t the connotation I learned the word in.

There you have it!

Much love,

Reut

PS

09-16-06

Oh! I completely forgot to tell you about our expedition to Philadelphia!

Last weekend, many of the Kansas City group decided to go to Philadelphia and walk around all the tourist attractions and such… We took the train, which wasn’t too bad, but I would never want to ride on it alone.

We got to Philadelphia and it was probably one of the last warm days of the year. We walked around a bit. We took a peek at the Carpenter’s hall, which was the meeting place of the first continental congress in 1774. Well… it was very musty and smelly inside, but it was still an amazing architecture and interesting reading materials inside.

I then convinced my friends to go see liberty bell with me. They all saw it before and I was the only who did not. They agreed, and we all went there. Security was ridiculous—I am all for security, but it was just a tad too much. Anyways, we went in, and I browsed through all the reading and saw the bell. I really had high expectations for it, and when I saw it, my first thought was… “what’s the big deal… it’s just a bell…” Not too patriotic, I know, but, really, it is just a bell. I realize that it represents freedom and all that, and that it has importance in the patriotic sense, but… I just was not too impressed. (We still took pictures for the heck of it)

Then we met up with some friends and ate in a local market. Now, that was really fun! I truly enjoyed the great conversation and the delicious food. Ice cream for desert, and I was set on coming back to this market again!

After we were done, we rode back home and later met in another friend’s house and had just good time ‘hanging out’… I was quite tired the next day, but it was definitely fun!

Did you know that Barbra Streisand is coming to Philadelphia in the fall? When we were in the city I saw some signs for it. I looked checked out the prices on the internet and was disappointed to find out that even the nose bleeder seats were over my financial ability. I guess I won’t be seeing Streisand in a real live concert. That’s okay… if Queen will be coming to this area again I’ll see them. Last stage news—“Mary Poppins” is opening up on Broadway in October! I’ve been dying to see this show, ever since I’ve seen the UK shorts about it. I will try and get cheap tickets for later on in the season (although I have a feeling after psych rotations I’ll be much busier…)

Well, that’s my addendum for the other entry,

Smooches again!

Reut

Rotations!

(not the best pictures, but there you have it...)


09-06-06 --> 09-16-06
Hello to all!

It is early on Saturday morning, and any normal person would be still sleeping… I on the other hand drove my friends to the airport early on, and now I am completely and utterly awake, so I am enjoying the rainy sky, and the wonderful morning.

So a whole lot has happened since my last entry. Last I wrote was the night before rotations… I was a bit nervous and excited at the same time, but still managed to sleep well. In the morning, we got to the hospital at around 9AM for what was suppose to be another orientation… well… we didn’t quite have that :o) The doctor saw us and said something on the line of: “um… do you know how to do an H&P?” (H&P means History and Physical). My friend Matt and I told him we could, but have never done it on a real live patient, just on an actor (this wasn’t quite accurate, as we did have score one last year with the kids, but that was more like a screen for them, not a real H&P). In anycase, each of us got two patients and we interviewed them, did the physical examination and wrote up a note… It was very intimidating at first, but now that I’ve been doing this for a whole week and a half, I have to say that it is not intimidating, and that I’ve actually gotten better at it! Very nice.

Due to confidentiality, I cannot give out too much information, but I can tell you that I have seen a lot of alcohol, heroin and cocain dependent patients with withdrawls. I haven’t seen too much ‘real’ psychiatric patients… but of those I have seen, I saw a patient with Schizoaffective disorder, another patient who attempted suicide, and both antisocial and borderline disorders.

Our two other friends (Josh and Erica) are upstairs in the locked unit. They get to see a lot of the mood disorders and the personality disorders. Originally Matt and I were going to request a transfer upstairs, but… I really like my place, and I finally feel like I know what I am doing, so… I am reconsidering my request.

Our resident is just awesome!!! She has to be the nicest person I have ever met; very sweet, smart and helpful. Our Nurse practitioner is also very knowledgeable and nice—I’ve been following her for a little bit just to pick up what I was doing wrong, and what I needed to improve. And of course, our doctor is very nice and knowledgeable.

You know, Queen (the band, not Elizabeth) has a song that really describes my psychiatry rotation…the first line goes like this: “Open up your mind and let me step inside…” This is definitely the theme of psychiatry! (the rest of the song is all about love…)

Well… so that’s what been going on with my rotations. I cannot believe that we have finished half of the first rotation already! That’s amazing!

Vega and KC are doing well… at the moment, Vega is meowing next to the door because she wants to go on a walk. I already took her out this morning, so she’ll have to wait until later on. KC is snoozing on the sofa—he likes the good life.

Smooches from here!

Reut

The night before Rotations

08-19-->09-05-06

Hello everyone!

I didn’t write for quite a while… but I was quite busy during the past week and a half :o)

I flew home to Arizona! I had such a wonderful time. I really missed everyone and it was a much needed visit.

During the time at home I rested a whole lot, played with Midnight and Sancho, Cooked with mom, attempted to help with dad’s projects, but didn’t really get to do it, and had fun with Omer.

Everything was well until Wednesday of last week… on that day, dad went on a walk with Midi and Sancho, and during the trip, Sancho’s old owner saw sancho and with tears in his eyes and excitement started saying: “Peppito! Peppito!” Sancho was very excited to see Ramondo (his previous owners) and dad didn’t have a choice and had to give Sancho back :o( All of us were crying. We got attached to the little dog! He was truly a unique dog and no other dog will be the same. So… Sancho went back to live on the ranch with the horses… He was excited but kind of confused. I think he might just miss us.

Anyhow, I nagged mom and dad to look at other dogs. I did this mainly because I thought that another dog might fill the hole that was created. We looked at Nessi, Mickey, Rodney, Midnightah (a girl dog who looked just like Midnight), Chocko and lastly Camile.

Much to my surprise Mom and dad decided to get Camile, and so now she is at our house with her new name of Daisy… She is much taller than Sancho, and very scared. During the time I was home, she opened up just a tiny bit and for a moment we saw the real dog who is hiding inside… I just talked to dad today, and he said that she is feeling much more secure now and is working on opening up (and eating the furniture…)

Well… that’s the home adventures.

I came back to NJ on a red eye flight and landed at 5:15am Monday morning. The flight was disgusting, but I’ll spare you the details. I thought I was going to make it through the day, but I fell asleep for a few hours, which was good. For the rest of yesterday, I was walking around feeling very nervous about the beginning of rotations. It’s a big change, and I am both excited and nervous at the same time.

Well, today (Tuesday) we had an orientation which lasted most of the day. It was important to go through the paper work. The best part about today was seeing all of my friends from school! Tomorrow morning I will be starting at the psychiatry rotation—I will be very glad to have that first day over with!

Lastly, big news—I passed the COMLEX! It’s nice to be completely done with it!

Smooches!

Reut


Dad with Sanchito about a month ago...


The newest addition to the family-- Daisy