my life as a filipino-american, newly graduated family med physician

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MD

I'm actually a doctor now. What a weird feeling.

My graduation ceremony wasn't as sentimental or noteworthy as it could have been simply b/c it wasn't my original class. I didn't even know the people sitting next to me. Plus, the place was jammed packed and sweltering.

The house is 99% finished now just in time for all my in-laws to stay over for my graduation. Spending time w/ my family and friends was the actual highlight of the weekend. I realize I couldn't have gotten through these past few years w/o God, family, and friends.

I made it. I actually made it.

Memorial Day


We barely had any time to recover from entertaining guests after the graduation and left to go fishing Sunday night. I wanted to get some fishing time in before I start my residency next month so we pretty much left our house a mess ( I really hate coming back to a messy house though). By the time we got there, I ended up feeling too tired to fish anyway and let the guys do all fishing while Malynne and I tried to gather brush to start a fire.

I definitely know I could not survive on Survivor. Even though we had 6 books of matches and a lighter , we still took FOREVER to start a fire. The wind kept on blowing out every bit of flame that we mustered up. By the time we did get the fire started, we had worked up such large appetites, but were quickly disappointed to find out we'd only be eating one fish and some left over brisket from graduation. Plus, since the wind was blowwing so hard, sand got all over the food, and we ended up eating crunchy, burnt fish and brisket.

The actual highlight of the night was sitting up talking till 3 am in our large 9 man tent. I love how fatigue and a sugar high (from the smores) can become a type of truth serum. We ended up playing truth or dare (something I haven't played for a long while) for an hour and then just ended up spilling morsels of truth all over the place.

posted by dinah 5:31 PM

Deadline

We are not done remodeling and our deadline is coming in 2 days. My in-laws are visiting from out of town and the bathroom is still not done!

I'm tired and haggard. My hands are molting. I have not worn makeup, dressed up, or done my hair in a long while. I just don't feel myself. I want to rest and relax and enjoy this house, but I keep on thinking of all the things that need to be done. On top of that, I'm graduating this weekend and for some reason, that will bring with it another type of stress.

annoyed

I finally found the shower curtain I wanted after visiting countless amounts of stores (it's amazing how my focus on shopping has diverted from clothes to housestuff). The only problem is, the only one left was the one on display. Why they couldn't sell me the one on display, I don't know, but I am so annoyed.

The second reason I am annoyed is b/c my computer is messed up and I have not hot synced my Palm in ages. what's worse is that the batteries died yesterday and I have lost everything . . .

Why I am Thankful

B/c I finally have an internet connection again . . .

posted by dinah 3:41 AM

couch potato

Ever since we got our TV, we've slowed down and have been less motivated to work on the house. we're so close though.

I'm stripping the paint off our cabinets and my hands now look like an 80 year womans. They are all pruny especially around my cuticles. I even used gloves, but my fingers are so wrinkly and dry. You really have to be extra careful w/ this stuff cuz if it's strong enough to strip paint it's sure enough to eat up your skin. the stuff smells citrus-y and is even orange gunk, but man, looks and smells can be deceiving. I'm smelling my hands now and they smell really gross.

old friends

a friend of mine who i haven't seen in about 4 years has come back into town. it's neat to hear how he's "in love" now esp since this is coming from a guy who did not believe in romance and thought he'd be single all his life. I am amazed that he fell in love pretty much at first sight and for a very level headed guy, this certainly was unlike him.

cooking

I gotta practice cooking so i made some dinner (over and above spaghetti) last night. got some praises and some constructive criticism. pretty good. presentation counts though and I was lucky I had some cool plates. I really love to host things and am so glad we have a house now. pretty soon I'll be breaking out all the nice dinnerware we got from the wedding. I'm one of those type of people who feel that you should your "nice things" instead of just displaying them. what's the use of nice plates if you're never going to use them?

neighbors
I don't think our elderly neighbor likes us. robin said when he said hello to him, the guy gave him a weird look. I think it all boils down to the fact that we haven't said we wanted to replace the fence that we share w/ him. it's practically falling down and we can see into eachothers backyard b/c of it, but we really are trying to concentrate on the inside of our house before we embark on yet another endless journey outside.

he has nothing better to do.

posted by dinah 5:44 PM

I can almost taste it

the sweet end to our renovation process is almost over. i can't wait. we finally got cable TV (actually, we finally have a TV period in this house) and boy am I going to enjoy it tonight.

it'll probably be another 1 1/2 wks till we're really done cuz we still have the bathroom tile and foyer tile to do, but the rooms are finally carpeted and the livingrooms finally have wood. can't wait.

swindlers

never ever get your remodeling done by those people who can afford advertising. We hired some people to put the carpet in whose names we got from a carpet close-out owner. they were dirt cheap and did a pretty good job. one of them said he could also do the rest of our tile since my poor husband has exhausted his motivation for doing the entire house. he quoted us something less than $200 for the bathrooms and foyer. just to make sure we weren't being jipped (sp?) we called "Handyman Inc" and the guy quoted us a whopping $840. hello???!!!! needless to say, we know where our money is NOT going.

posted by dinah 9:35 PM

Big Pimpin'

Our new attending likes to pimp us after rounds. Before medical school I would have thought pimping had something to do w/ illicit sex, but now I've come to know it as something similar to the game show jeapordy. When an attending/upperlevel resident pimps you, s/he picks your brain for what ever information you can mumble out in 1 second about a certain subject.

At times this can be an extremely anxiety-ridden experience especially as a 3rd year med students where the pressure to "perform" and make the grade is important. As a 4th year, it isn't so bad b/c I do know more, but the pressure isn't there as much (I'm practically graduated and don't need a recommendation.).

Today's pimp session included the differential diagnosis of dementia. boy was that long and drawn out, I was so sleepy. Plus, at times, you think you know the answer, but you don't want to be wrong so you don't say it and then it ends up being right. I hate that.

posted by dinah 3:20 PM

floating then sinking

While I'm ecstatic about having only 3 more days left on this rotation, I'm realizing it's 3 more days closer to my residency. I just got my schedule for July and it looks like I'll be starting on ER (emergency medicine) f/b (followed by) maternity. On top of that, it's not like I have time to rest and relax after this rotation is over b/c we're on a time schedule for renovating our house. We've been set back by a week or so by an unpredicted, eery, weird, creepy occurrence and by pure lack of motivation.

my team

A medical team includes those of us on a rotation together including the resident, interns, med students, and attending (the top notch/experienced doctor who only makes sure everyone else is doing their job correctly). the resident is the one mainly in charge, the interns do most of the work, while the med students do the scut (looking up labs, X-rays, writing notes, etc.


we got a new neuro resident today who seems extremely nice compared to our former one. the former one wasn't unpleasant, just different. he came and went as he pleased, didn't tell us what was going on, and had the most chauvanistic view of women I have ever encountered. it was all about his low self-esteem when he'd make comments about wanting another girlfriend while still hanging around his present one. I learned not to take him too seriously and realized he was a pretty funny guy, just extremely jaded by past relationships.

Early in the rotation he said," for having 2 women on the team, I'm surprised none of you have brought me breakfast." This was f/b comments about how all the nursing students here are ugly w/ fat butts (my word not his). He was an endless fountain of derogatory statements against the female sex w/c we got so accustomed to, we just had to laugh. At first we wondered if he forgot that we (girls) were in the the room, but then it seemed that he thought we weren't included in his blanket statements since we were married. Married women, he said, were allowed to get fat ( NOT THAT I AM!!)

So . . .new guy resident came today wearing a tie and his white coat asking us our names and about our backgrounds. He even wanted to hear what we (med students, not women) had to say about our patients!

drawing to a close

I've had a fun time w/ this team and realized it was a great refresher as far as inpatient/wards stuff goes. But I'm glad to be moving on too. In the last few weeks, I have become more apt to curse under my breath as a result of hanging out w/ my team who curse about every other word. I'M NOT OFFENDED when other people do it, but I try not to. it's not "me" nor do my friends curse in normal conversation. BUT my co-worker says it all the time (these F-ing labs, what the F, that patient is F***ed and such) and she's the coolest person to be around. I don't know it's just not me and I'm JUST PRUDE THAT WAY. in MY opinion, it's just not necessary

posted by dinah 8:50 AM