The Doctor with the White Steth

I finally graduated to 2nd year of my IM residency. My first rotation was night float. Night float is hard and it really tests you. As a night float resident, you are just working, sleeping and eating! The cases which you see as a night float resident in a community hospital varies widely. Now I am more comfortable admitting a drunk alcoholic patient than admitting someone for the CCU team. Our Hospital is not equipped to handle urgent cardiac cath. So, we have to decide about possible transfer to a hospital which can tackle Coronary cath. We admit a lot of NSTEMI and Arrhythmias. There is a cardiologist on call every night but he is at HOME and resting. It's hard to reach them and as a resident you can only pray for the patient in some situations. So, whenever I am admitting any patient for CCU for gray zone troponin or non-specific EKG changes, I give the patient Aspirin, Ticagrelor and Full dose anti-coagulation. I can not take the risk. I call the attending and he normally ag...

It has been nearly 9 months since I started my internship. When I started my internship, I was full of energy and I could do anything. Now It seems like that It is taking a huge toll on me. I feel exhausted both physically and mentally. I am glad that the vacations came on time. I have been back home in Pakistan and enjoying the company of my parents. They always teach me about life which I can not learn from other people. I can share with them a lot of stuff. Hopefully by the end of my vacations, I will share some stuff which I will acquire from them.  For now, lets talk about the Medical Floor. The hardest part of the IM rotations are the floors. During 4-5 months consecutively on floors. I learned that you can not control everything. Your job as an intern should be to learn but it is so different out there in the real world. Your learning should be done by the attending and the senior residents; more so by the senior resident. Some days I got really sick of the fact that a...