Category: residency
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Requiem of a dream in residency
I don’t know when exactly my dream died. Sometime I wonder if it was ever really my dream, or if it indeed *was* my dream, and my questioning it’s validity as a way for me to cope with its untimely death. Before marching to dermatology I had the audacity to wonder what it would be…
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Night Feeding
A pretty kitty to keep me company in the predawn quiet. Charmion is a little surprised but not upset to have a friend at 3:30 AM. She sits on my folders, walks over my keyboard, and butts her head against my hand as I work. My computer hums softly, the keys a little sticky from…
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Mom Guilt
My toddlers cries are piercing their way through my closed bedroom door. She’s with a babysitter at the moment, and a very good one by my first impression. Cue severe Mom-Guilt. “You should be tending to her,” it says. BG’s cry tells me that she’s and in need of some snacks and a nap. We…
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The Friday Before V-Day
It’s the Friday before Valentine’s Day. I’m practicing my morning ritual of getting up at an obscene hour (4:30) and using the time to scroll through my phone in the blissful darkness of a quiet bedroom, with our sound machine droning in the background. My baby stirs next to me and makes little grunting sounds…
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Professionalism
I made the call when BG vomited for the third time the three ounces of formula we’d just given her: She’s not going to daycare tomorrow. Which mean that I need to call in sick. Residents don’t call in sick. And they especially don’t call in sick by proxy. But the thought of my daughter…
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The First Block of Derm
When I get home after clinic today the house is uncharacteristically quiet. My husband is at work (unusual for him since he usually works from home), and my daughter is in daycare. And I soak into the silence, hearing sounds I don’t usually do: the hum of the air conditioner in the background, some voices…
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By the end of residency
As I wait for my Uber outside of work I soak in the summer air. It’s fragrant, soft, and cool. Like burying your face in freshly washed sheets. It’s wonderful, and most of the summer hasn’t been like this. In my backpack is an article I’m supposed to read on lesion characteristics I need to…
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Where Credit Is Due
Just like that, my intern year is over. My replacement came to the workroom to introduce himself today, and I signed out my critical care patients to him. “You’re going to do great- I’m so excited for you,” I said to him, and I meant it. Before leaving, I finished my notes and I placed…
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Magnesium
My senior texts me that we’re starting rounds at bedside of her patient, who just had a rapid called for SVT. They pushed amiodarone. She responded and converted. Crisis averted… for now. Her magnesium is a little low this morning. Magnesium is commonly low in heart patients. It’s a side effect of one of the…
Med-Derm, MD 