A Day in the Life, or 'I Am De Niyavich'

Disclosure: this is a venting post. Don't read if you're not in the mood!

Two good but intense things happened today. I saw two patients, one in the morning and one in the evening. The morning was a 'real' patient who may or may not ever walk again due to infection. And this was particularly awful because the patient didn't understand how serious the illness really was, what the implications were for paraplegia, etc. And I wasn't supposed to say anything. Sigh. The second was a medical model educator, who taught me (and three of my classmates) how to do the OB/GYN exam along with our professor. It was a really, really good way to learn it. Our model/educator is incredibly good at knowing whether you're doing it right, and how to fix it, and how to relax while clumsy medical students examine your nether regions. But it is pretty intense to be doing an OB/GYN exam, or watching one, for three hours straight.

Those two things were quite medically amazing, and I learned a lot and I'm glad for them (patient suffering notwithstanding). However, they were emotionally demanding, and on top of them, all the small things in the day kept tripping me up -- starting this morning, when I literally tripped on my way to preceptorship and almost fell down the stairs. Other stupid things kept happening. My hairspray had no nozzle and I broke one of my favorite headbands. I thought our OB exam started half an hour later than it actually did and was late to a pelvic exam, which is very bad form and incredibly humiliating because it's so disrespectful (thankfully no scolding or parking ticket as vengeance for my error). Luckily, I think I did all right during the exam itself. I didn't eat a square meal till 9 pm, for various reasons. I haven't paid my bills or taken care of my cat today. There are dishes in the sink driving me nuts. The recycling bins are overflowing and need to be taken out. Plus a million important emails are sitting in my inbox, undealt-with. I need about twenty hours of sleep tonight.

And tomorrow is going to be so hectic. In the morning, I have to practice my complete research talk for the head of our thesis department (which is not done yet), and then I have a clinical skills exam where I get to do the entire physical exam in an hour from memory. Yikes. Add to this a still-undone thesis (!), a patient write-up, a paper due for class on Monday, and the actual research presentation this Friday, and you have just a little stress.

Oh, yeah, and the boards. I should probably start thinking about those. Too bad school is getting in the way of the boards, huh?

I keep telling myself to breathe. Air is necessary. Air is necessary.

But as they say,

"When you're cold, don't expect sympathy from someone who's warm."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

So, my friends, rest assured: this pity party is officially over.

Okay? Okay:

One.
Two.
Three...

GO!