Leid in Public

Tonight was the American Academy of Pediatrics Hawaii Chapter's Annual (and I improvise) "Let's meet the new interns and ridicule them on stage" dinner. And yes, I did get lei'd with an orchid lei. We basically went on stage and they did a brief little bio. What fun! But we did get fed at the Hale Koa, so it was nice. Got to meet the community physicians. Only now, they'll be able to put a face to that disembodied voice that calls them at 3:00 am. Hope they understand!

Well, life is busy. Don't do much except go to work. I sleep on my days off. It's going to be like this for the next month at least. After that, in September, I move to Adolescent Medicine. I think I get weekends off then. Yay! I think I have to take Labor and Delivery call though. That would be a little scary, I think. But we'll see. Wish me luck! Oh and Jenn, send some commenters my way! I feel so unspecial, hehehe.

Costco

I went with one of my new friends, Bryan, to Costco yesterday. It was actually a good symbiotic relationship, I have a car, he has a Costco membership. We became friends more because we were shoved together into this roller coaster ride known as Residency, but he's pretty cool. I found out that he lived in Kansas for four years as a kid...Kansas of all places. Anyways, Costco was fun, sampling all of the food. Salivating over the plasma TVs. Debating with myself if I really needed that much peanut butter. Attempting to speak Pidgin to the ladies who were serving Dave's Island Flavors. Trying to stay awake long enough to push the cart. Telling myself that I'll be able to eat all of that sourdough bread that I bought. Learning what olive oil is good for.

Then I came home and I slept. For a really really long time. Woke up briefly at 10 pm...then crashed again. I was so tired. Yes, I was post call and I went to Costco, yea to me.

Oh, and a word of advice, always clean out your mailbox of those porn emails that get sent to you whether you subscribed to the list or not. Our program director asked another resident to email a presentation to himself because the floppy disk on the mac in the conference room wasn't working. So the poor resident had to open up his mailbox on the big screen. Luckily it was only the other residents. But we got a good laugh out of it.

Things I've Learned

1 week has passed and this is what I've learned:

1. My first name is now doctor, not Darrett, not mister, doctor. That was the most absurd thing I've heard...Dr. Choy can you please do....
   
2. White coats don't stay white no matter how hard you try. You need Oxiclean to keep them that pure color.
   
3. In a pinch, cereal does well for dinner.
   
4. You can get by on naps.
   
5. You have to answer pages back fast or people think you're shirking.
   
6. You can survive on naps.
   
7. Naps are good things.
   
8. Your life consists of going to work, coming home, eating, relaxing for a bit, reading for a bit, then falling asleep to do things all over again.
   
9. Did I mention, naps?
   
10. Free cafeteria food is nice, free food from the outside is even better...*hint**wink*

Don't get sick in July ...

That's the old addage that's spread around the hospitals, especially amongst the new residents. It's with a combination of excitement and nervousness that we greeted today. For the first time, our signatures meant something, we had to introduce ourselves as Doctor, and people expected us to make decisions. We've come a long way since that first day of medical school when we didn't even know what high blood pressure was.

All in all it was a good day. I did get overhead paged, and I freaked out thinking, why didn't they just page my pager, am I in trouble already? Luckily it was a scheduling mix up that my chief took care of. I also got a page on my pager today from a nurse. It's so weird to get a page and be called to assess a patient. Luckily it wasn't something that I couldn't handle.

I'm adjusting to my new life. It's interesting. Fun, interesting. Yes, I just keep telling myself that. And if millions of other interns can survive, I can too. And you know what? I think it's ok to get sick in July, we'll take really good care of you. I promise.