Behind the White Coat

The First Day

I had my first day as a functioning doctor today.  Lucky for me I start in clinic during July, which is relatively chill in that I see patients in an outpatient setting from roughly 9 to 5 daily, except for a few ER and night float shifts.  Nevertheless, quite a surreal experience in that I did not feel much different (nor more competent for that matter) than a 4th year medical student.  In fact when I was a sub-I, I think I was even more comfortable (and cocky) seeing patients than I was today.  Perhaps it was just the first day jitters, or the fact that I still don't have a white coat (gotta get them tomorrow), but it was definitely kind of a nervous moment when they told us to head to the clinic and start seeing your patients!

You would think they start you off easy, a few patients a day maybe?  My schedule was for 6 patients!  Good lord.  Lucky for me one of them didn't show up in the end.  Before I saw my first patient, I was just hoping that they would speak English.  How shitty would that be to see my first patient as a doctor and not be able to communicate.  Of course she speaks Spanish.  But lucky for me she spoke enough broken English to communicate.... difficulty.  I suppose if she spoke zero English I would be forced to use the translation phone line, but it was in between, so I was flippin through my medical spanish pocket manual to tell her things i could not communicate.  All in all very annoying, making me realize Spanish is KEY.  And of course she was a trainwreck.  Bad heart disease, pacemaker implanted, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, depression, and these weird skin lesions.  And her medications were a laundry list.  She was even multiple brands of the same medicaiton!  What a mess.  So I sat and just drudged through it.  Took me about 2 hours to complete my first patient, but I somehow managed to do something and change something that may actually help her out.  Definitely felt better than when I was a measeley sub-I.

In the end the day turned out good.  I had some patients who loved me, which was kind of nice.  Of course I screwd up a few times, like forgetting to do a physical exam on a new patient which I thought was here for labs!! Haha. But other than that, it turned out well.  The ball is rolling baby!

In other news, I got myself an ugly non-pimping rental car.  But at least my commute improves.  I am going car shopping (well lease shopping) on saturday, hopefully I can find an improvement from the civic!

The Accident

Well orientation is about done, and real work as a doctor begins on Tuesday.  Still hasn't sunk in, but tomorrow night I'm sure it will.  So much has happened and I just cannot keep up.  I fear the blog will be neglected in the near future, but I'll see if I can't keep some stories coming, I'm sure I'll have plenty!

So the crazy story of the month was the accident that totalled my car.  That's right, my little civic has died a traumatic death--thankfully none of us got hurt though.  Going down Pelham parkway, this main road in the Bronx, with three girls from my intern class, I had a green light ahead of me.  Unfortunately the stupid lady behind the wheel of a plymouth decided to make an illegal turn from the service road, putting her smack in the midddle of the intersection on a green light for me.  Slamming on the breaks, screeching tires, and honking, I decelerated to about 25-30 when I plowed right into her left side.  She froze like a deer in headlights the whole 2 seconds (which felt like 10).  Then I just remember the loud colliding bang as the airbags deployed and the car was filled with white smoke.  Thank the lord ALL of us were buckled up, including the two in the back.  The airbags probably saved our lives, and nobody was seriously injured. 

In the car I hit, some old lady in the back had to go to Jacobi ER with a superficial head bleed.  I learned later the head CT was negative and she seemed ok, so lets hope she stayed that way.  At least the accident wasnt my fault (I guess we'll see the police report on Monday to find out for sure).  Though given that the driver was delirious and didnt even remember where she was going, I am quite confident I'll be ok.

Now my car is finished.  Time to deal with all the bullshit with insurance companies, what to do with the car, and what not.  Not to mention getting another car.  Maybe if I play my cards right I can get a graduation gift from the 'rents (sincce I got none).  Till then, I await my hour long commute from the Upper East Side!!

The New Crib

Well I made it back from LA.... I stayed a week longer than I intended, which meant lots of shopping, chllin, and partying.  But man was it fun.  Steve and I got the last minute invite to our friend Megan's wedding, which was fantastic!  A lot of chaos and hectic days at the Gera household as they were quite involved in the wedding, but well worth it.  The wedding functions and reception were super fun.  Similar to Paki weddings in many ways, but the difference is in the Indian Punjabi wedding, everyone is hammered, meaning it's a blast!!  So alas, the beautiful weather, lovely ladies, and laid back life of LA comes to an end as I am back in NY and had to frantically submit my forms, take care of last minute crap, and of course... MOVE.

After hours of back-paching, painstaking cleaning, packing, loading of the U-Haul, drudging through bumper to bumper traffic, and finally the dreaded unloading, I am finally moved into my new apartment.  It took several of my friends, my mom and her jeep, and a random mexican dude my mom found, but we got it done.  Unfortunately, my lovely black leather couch that has served me well for the past 5 years did not fit through the goddamn door.  We twisted, turned, and manipulated it every which way, but the railing and the door just did not make friends in order for it to enter the apartment.  So I had to send it back to the Bronx, hoping craigslist will sell it for me to someone.  Other than that slight mishap, I am now officially a manhattanite once again... Be it the upper east side (77th and 2nd), as far as I'm concerned, coming from the Bronx, that is like moving to union square or the village!

Despite it being Friday, I didn't even go out.  Instead I peered out my window to the amazing garden/patio at the 1st floor resident below me.  He was playing with his dog by a fire on his wooden benches as he spotted me.  He invited me down for a beer, and we chilled for at least 2 hours shootin the shit with some beers and buds.  A 35 year old wall street trader who wants to fish for a living.  Super nice guy, though probably partially because he was faded as hell, but nonetheless, we became best friends within 2 hours!  Quite entertaining I must say...

Now I must unpack all my shit, which is going to be murder.  Then decide how to arrange this place, a very unique apt it is... Once its set up, ill let ya'll sneak a peak...   

Monday is orientaiton... Wow.. The fun is really about to begin!!!!!   I am afraid....

Trust Me I'm a Doctor

It finally happened.  We have graduated! We are now officially doctors.  June 1st we got our MD degree from Albert Einstein.  That gives us about 3 weeks or so off before the real fun begins.  Graduation was followed by an after party at Glass, and pretty much celebrations the whole week.  Now I find myself in sunny LA where I came to take the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills exam.  What a waste of time.  It was pretty much like the Seinfeld episode where Kramer had to pretend like he had gonorrhea, except there are 11 damn simulatd-patients we had to see.  How annoying can it get?  Lets just hope we passed the damn thing.  Anyway, my roomate Steve and I were supposed to come back to NY on tonight's red eye, Jun 7th.  But alas last night at Nikhil's party at his parent's house, I was somehow convinced by everyone to stay.  Our friend is having her wedding even this weekend, which was more incentive.  So now I have moved my flight to Monday the 13th redeye.  Now I sit here in LA at Nik's full house, with half my forms unsent to Montefiore still in the Bronx, my physical still pending, all my stuff unpacked and unmoved from my old apt as my new apt sits empty, not to menton having only 3 days of clothes here in LA, with definitely no clothes for a wedding.  Ah yes, you gotta love spontaneity, especially after you have drank a lot of Blue Label.  Well I'm here for another week, time to enjoy the west coast some more!!!  Pics from Grad will have to wait till I get back!