Day 339 End of the Year Update

Its been a while since I last updated the blog. I wanted to let you guys know what has been happening. I have about 2-3 weeks left in the year before we become 2nd years. Its amazing how fast time flies. I remember just yesterday spending my first night on call and spending my first weeks in the unit. I'm really glad you guys have been following the blog. I hope it has helped all of you who read it. If I have not answered all your emails please give me time. I will respond to all of them. I hope that you have walked away after reading my journey to first year with some insights into residency and the match. I have tried to post information that you can use to help you better in this years match that is coming up. Whenever there is information that helps those to get into programs I try to post it here.

I'm finishing my last 2 weeks in the general medical Medicine floor. I just finished the night float system (on-call 8pm-8am 2 weeks in a row.) I was surprised how smoothly it went. The nurses didn't seem to bother much. Most if not all of the calls where handled smoothly. I had good seniors with me. I did most of the admissions with little or no supervision. I also got to spend my night float one week with superman !!! (check out day 5 of the blog : http://thankyougodforresidency.blogspot.com/2008/06/day-5-good-bad-and-ugly.html)
Some of you might remember him from previous post. I really had a good night float with him. We had a good time reviewing some protocols and debating everything and anything. I spent an entire night arguing whether to use xopenex or albuterol on a asthma exacerbation admission that I did. He had stated that albuterol was preferred over xopenex. I didn't completely believe him, but was kind of irritated by the way he asked me about it. he kind of scolded me for placing her on xopenex. I was so annoyed I spent an hour on the internet comparing journals and articles on both of them and found conflicting information. I found articles stating that xopenex was sometimes preferred for cost because it might diminish the number of hospital stays. I showed him the articles to his surprise and we had a loud discussion about it. lol. I came of a little upset while we argued because I was annoyed that he was trying to lecture me on admitting an asthma exacerbation which we have done 100 times. Anyways overall it was a good night float. A lot of other stuff happened throughout the night float and I'll post it later.

The resident graduation is in 10 days and I'm preparing some slide show presentation which is taking me a long time to do. I have been sorting out from a group of pictures. I was also up late last night ordering some special award plaques that we wanted to give to the program director and associate program director for all their help this year. It came out about 160$ but we will try to collect money from the residents to see if they can chip in.

I also have vacation coming up. There is a group of residents that are going to the Bahamas, but me and my wife might go to Dominican Republic. I sure miss Dominican republic. We spent 6-7 years their when we were back in school. IT is a great country to relax and have fun. It was difficult when we were there, but we really miss it a lot. We lived near 27 de Febrero and went to an English/Spanish speaking school called Unibe. I'm sure a lot of you know the school. (you can pretty much find all the unibe students on facebook these days). We want to go to D.R. but the price is so expensive. I think a ticket is like 1000$ per person. We want to go to bavaro resorts that we are very familiar with.

Other happenings with my life : we have had several tragedies hit some of the residents and people that I know. One of the residents husband was found to have cancer (stage 3-4) and another residents dad passed away from cancer 3 days ago. They took some time off to deal with these difficult situations. Our prayers go out to them and their families. Its been very difficult for them. A lot of times in life you complain of problems and difficulties, only to see someone else have a bigger and more serious one. It was very devastating for us to hear the news. Specially when she also has 2 small kids with them. You hate to see people you love and care about it pain. I pray that they will be able to bear all these trying times.

I'm on call today till 8pm. I'm a little exhausted. I hope I can give a betetr update. I have blog inserts that I have finished I just have to upload them I will upload it this week.

Make sure you guys check out this blog has a lot of helpful material:
http://www.usmletomd.com/tips4match/


Take care guys. I need to take a short nap. I'm beat......

God bless

Dr.Mike