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