Only 2 more days of Neuro and so far, all goes well. All good comments from preceptors and even managed to get a diagnosis or two right. Wootwoot! Today my pleasantly delerious patient was firmly conviced that I was a Vietnamese camera salesgirl.

Busy, busy, busy. Two full weeks on the wards and one more week of my neurology elective. Spent the first week on stroke - HUGE team, lots of people to answer my questions, very nice place to start. This past week and next week I'll be on general, way more variety, much smaller team so I'm on my own a lot of the time doing consults, lots of independence. I like, I like! So we'll see what happens with the rest of my electives and hopefully a few more things get ruled out by the end of my first 6 weeks. On call right now, but my resident has disappeared off the face of the earth. Hanging around for 25 more minutes then I'm outta here!

Cold, yicky day in Edmonton, hot chocolate weather.

Long day yesterday. Rounds were scheduled for 7AM, meaning I pre-round at 6:30 and have to wake up at 5:30. Everyone on surgery's rolling their eyes right now but hey! It's early for me. Was feeling pretty zonked the rest of the day and of course, a consult came in at 4:30 and myself and the other medical student got stuck with it. That patient was uber-complicated and next thing you know, I'm not leaving the hospital till 7:00, I'm late for dinner with friends and the bistro has stopped serving grilled food and we can either have soup or salad, both of which have been sitting there all day. Awesome.

So Kev and I decided to go to unnamed Japanese restaurant close by. We know it's not the greatest place and it's definitely overpriced for the quality of food that they serve, but it's close and we're starving. All is going well, we're in from the cold, we get a table right away, the tea is hot until!! I lift up my tuna and something WIGGLES!!! Upon closer inspection it turns out to be a still-alive wiggly, centimeter-long BUG!!! I was so disgusted I couldn't even say anything, just brought it up to the sushi bar, pointed at the offending ingrediant and half-threw it onto the counter. Then returned to my table to gag and wash away ickiness with lots and lots of green tea. Shudder...

Day two of wards!

Yay! They gave me my first consult today! And she was a lovely patient who had a fairly decent memory and was very cooperative and it STILL took me about an hour and a half to do everything. Wow...must learn to be more efficient...but on the bright side, I think she liked me =) Small victories...

Then on my way off the ward, I saw a friend sitting at a table with a bunch of people from our class. So I go over and start yappingyappingyapping and she's looking at my kinda strange. So I finally stop to breathe and she asks me whether or not I'm there for teaching. I say no, and she sort of gestures to a person sitting further down the table. So I look and it's one of the staff doctors! And I've completely interrupted their teaching session and everyone's giving me weird looks and I feel like a complete and utter moron!!! A moron who sincerely hopes that she gets Internal at the Nuns. Craps...

In the afternoon, I tagged along for a few more patients, then saw a guy who was almost completely blind because of a big stroke. Sad =(

Day one of wards...

And no one's died yet!

Yups, all in all today was pretty uneventful. They know that we're brand spanking new and that this is our very first rotation so they've been easing us in. We started out with morning intake rounds; unlike surgery rounds which begin at the ungodly hour of 6 or 6:30AM, these rounds don't start until 9 which is in keeping with my preferred sleeping habits =) These rounds are for the purpose of reviewing interesting patients who were admitted the night before.

Then we move onto inpatient rounds, starting with those in the ER and Emerg Transition Unit, a group of 11 people slowly moved up through the hospital onto the wards. And while most services will finish rounds by noon or earlier, it was 1:30 before we even made it out of Emerg! Then came lunch break, then onto the ward patients and then it was time to go home. So with the exception of one quick consult (which turned out NOT to be a stroke) I spent my entire first day rounding.

I'll be on Neurology for the next 3 weeks; the first week I'm on stroke service, the next two I'll be on general service. There are also 3 medical students who are doing electives right now and all of us are from the same class! So it's nice to have a familiar face or two around. OK! That's it, no more to report =) Hopefully tomorrow is a little more hands-on. At this rate it'll be next week before they let me have a patient!

Monday, we go on the wards. Everyone try not to get sick.

This being one of our big 'firsts', they held a small ceremony for us today. They made some speeches, we said a pledge, they shook our hands. These last two weeks they've given us quite a few 'Dos' but mostly 'Don'ts' (ie. DON'T be a jerk to the nurses. DON'T think you're all that. DO show up on time) and we've poked and prodded each other, learnt our CPR, practiced writing admission notes and progress orders.

But out of everything we've done these last 2 weeks I think I'll remember what happened outside of class the most. Chats in the car, impromptu dinners and poker games. Stupid conversations over coffee, over lunch, in between classes. Learning to whole-heartedly love a group of people and know that we might not all sit in the same room again until it's graduation time.

Feeling nostalgic. And yet excited that all of us are moving onto this next stage together. And yet scared that Monday morning, I will actually have my own patient.

Of all the long weekends, the Labor Day one has to be the worst =) Synonymous with the end of summer, the coming of winter, less fun, more work, both entering and leaving the hospital while it's dark outside, Vitamin D deficiencies etc. This year though, there are wards to look forward to! I estimate that this generally positive attitude towards going on the wards will last about an hour, until I manage to make a complete idiot of myself for the very first time and realize just how hopelessly unprepared I am for this transition. In the mean time, I bask in my ignorance.

Synopsis of my weekend:

Friday: Yay! First day of long weekend, absolutely no reason whatsoever to begin studying yet. Phone date, 24, very tasty dinner.

Saturday afternoon: Hiking in Elk Island. Lots and lots of buffalo patties, like landmines they were! Great time with friends while taking full advantage of whatever good weather's left. Came home, very obvious that socks were NOT thick enough. Bled into one blister and plenty of new ones!

Saturday night: Faculty BBQ. This doc has a fire pit, a pizza oven, a pond, a swimming pool, a playground, a orchard and a hockey arena in his backyard. Beautiful setting, amazing crabcakes. Home for more 24 =)

Sunday: Mommy and Squishy come to town. Dim Sum and general time wastage ensue. Had friends over for tacos and a poker night. They leave, I have WAY too many things in my fridge (even after forcing them to take home almost all of the leftovers!) and a few new stains on my carpet.

Monday: Mmm...sleep...accidentally miss my phone date with Andrea. She's very forgiving =) Phone date 2 hours later than it was originally scheduled. Laundry and lunch. Blog surf and check emails. Ooh, Signy wants to go to a movie. But crap it's 2 and I still haven't started studying. Guiltguiltguilt...try reading about TIA. Give up and call Jackie who's newly-moved up to Edmonton. Woohoo! Gelato date tonite! Write ramble-y blog, guiltguiltguilt...back to work =)