Day 359 Last Day as an Intern !!!

Well it finally came. My last day as an intern!! I just can’t believe it has already been a year. Its truly amazing. I had a really stressful week. I was in the hospital 7 days straight. My on call schedule was something like this:

June 14th Sunday on-call 7am-8pm
June 17th Wednesday on-call 7am-8pm
June 19th Friday Graduation 7am -11pm
June 20th Saturday on-call 730am-8am (24hours)
June 22th Monday On-call 7-8pm
June 23rd Tuesday Presentation

I was basically in the hospital 9/10 days !!! Geesh I was exhausted. Thank goodness I’m on vacation now!!! It Was an activity filled week. We had the senior’s graduation ceremony that we were planning on Friday. I had several things I needed to do for the ceremony. Me and another 2nd year planned award plaques and I had to purchase 2 separate Award plaques that I had to custom order online for about $160 dollars. I had searched about 50 different sites, but I was able to get to only one I thought was good. We had made a collection for the cash with the other residents and the rest of the cash, I had to put in. The 2nd year gave me extra cash to cover a few of the cost. I had also spent the last 4 weeks editing a special video presentation for the graduating class. It was so exhausting to do, but I was able to do it. We included the video as part of a graduation gift bag. I almost got in big trouble on Friday the day of the ceremony. It was around 3pm when one of the program secretaries called me to her office. She sat me down and said “I need to talk to you.” She said it so serious. I got so nervous. I must have done something really bad I thought. She went on “You know a lot of people don’t know a lot of what has happen. And you don’t know a lot of what has happen. I saw the presentation that you did. And I hate to ask you, but you have to take one picture out.” She then went on to tell me how that person had had a turbulent relationship with her and the other staff members and the program director now, and she would appreciate it if I would take out the picture from the presentation.” I was relieved to hear her say that, I thought that I had done something awful or injured a patient. She was so serious, her tone was so different. She told me that it’s the program directors night, and I shouldn’t spoil it for her bringing back pass memories of relationships. Well I said no problem ran to my computer which I had in the car and edited the picture that was on my computer. I had to do it fast, because the graduation party was about to start. I went back and edited the picture, and went back to her and told her that I had taken it out. I also told her to tell the program director indirectly, that I had taken the photo out, but that the video show had to be played with my computer since it’s the final edit. Well it seemed like the problem was avoided and I left the hospital around 5:00pm to go set up the presentation. The program director was going to meet me there.
Well It seemed that everything was going to plan until I plugged in my computer to the sound system they had their and realized that I didn’t have the power cord of the lab top. My face turned white and cold. My wife was there and she looked at me and asked what was wrong. I told her “I forgot the power cord of my computer. I need the power cord! I can’t play the video show from any other computer. I gave my word to the program director and I didn’t want to make her feel bad…” I was in a state of panic. My wife said “take it easy. I’ll go back and get the cord for you. Don’t worry.” At this time the program director walked in and she asked if everything was ok, I turned to her and said. I “I think so, except for the fact that I forgot the cord for my computer, but don’t worry my wife went to get it.” Her face changed and she seemed a bit worried. Luckily for me, I had backed up the power point presentation on my flash drive and tried to load it to another computer that was there. I spend the next 10 minutes trying to edit the show as best as I could. And by God’s grace I was able to fix it. I went over to the program director and told her everything is fine. She seemed relieved. (the power point was the presentation I had been working on for about 4 weeks. It was a tribute with pictures we took over the year of all the events in the program.)
Well needless to say the night went out without a flaw. My wife came back with my cord, but I didn’t need it, but the program director was glad to see he had made the effort. The night went rather well. They gave out awards and resident awards – award for hardest working residents, nursing staff favorite resident etc.. I didn’t win any awards but probably came close. The program director publically thanked me and my friend for all our hard work this year.

The high point of the night was when I got to present the program director and associate program director the $160 plaques we got them. It was memorable because they didn’t know we were going to do that. The 3rd years had gotten their awards, and me and the 2nd year resident stood up and presented the awards to them. They were really surprised! You should have seen the look on their faces. After the award ceremony the residents danced and we took pictures, and really had a good time.

I was really glad for my wife, she was able to meet the program directors and staff-Which was really good for her, because she wants to start residency soon. When it comes time to applying and she will at least be “guaranteed” an interview.
After this award ceremony I spent the next weekend on call and studying for my mortality and morbidity conference I was holding with SUPERMAN ! Can you believe it? And it had to do with the code we both ran on the patient who they found the ETT in the esophagus. I think none of the seniors wanted to do it, so they put it on me to do it. I spent the entire weekend studying for it. It was pretty fun. I learned a lot of good stuff. I tried to do my presentation design almost similar to how the ACP doctors I saw in ACP. When they talk about certain points, they always refer to journal articles. So the majority of what I said on my presentation was from articles and journals. It was a lot of fun.
I almost forgot. The New interns are here !! and they look nervous !! just like we did 1 year ago. They look like they are going to crap their pants. Lol. Hard to believe 1 year ago we were in their exact shoes. They have been in the hospital about a week doing orientation. They seem to be a stronger group academically. 2 or 3 of them are surgeons (eye & colon). A few of them have phd’s and have had publications-Pretty impressive. However impressive it is, it really doesn’t prepare you for what they are about to go through.
I still remember having the first meeting with the chief and him telling us “on day one we start right away. It’s like the military. You are thrown into the fire.” I didn’t realize what that meant until the first day I was on call and got paged by the telemetry nurses 60 times.
Overall, it was a good and exciting year. I’m Glad some of you have followed my journey reading this blog. I hope and pray that one day you can begin your residency journey. I also hope that you find true meaning in your lives. What we do doesn’t define us. What we do is an extension of what we have inside. I hope that you find happiness in purpose in your career- Whether that involves having residency or not. I believe happiness comes from doing what you are meant in life. You have a purpose. And I hope you can discover that. I Hope and pray God grants you the strength and will to carry on in your long journey to finish with your career.

God Bless you and your family. Keep on working hard. Don’t Give up ! You can do it! Anything worth in this world comes through hard work and determination. Find strength amongst people that lift your life up. And when you can’t find peace in your life. When you feel the clouds of darkness surrounding you, when you feel alone and unsure of your life, look to God. He will life you up. Jesus can bring peace to your life. He can give you strength and the patience you need to carry on. Goodluck

God Bless
Dr.Mike