I officially completed a week of being on the wards, and I survived! I’m actually getting to the point where I can anticipate what’s going to happen with my patients, their care, and their operations. My attending consistently asks me what I want to do with each patient, and I now have a response that is better than “fix it” (which was my very first response when he asked me what I should do for the hernia patient in front of us).

I’m getting to the point where my resident can bypass the basic concepts with me, and we are moving on to more specifics (dosages, IV fluids, appropriate urine output, etc.) and nuances (for those of you interested, expected urine for a very obese person is calculated by using an average of their weight and their ideal weight!). Pretty exciting, I know. I’m also getting to do more in surgery. I successfully sutured some poor soul with little help from my resident and inserting catheters is now a no brainer.

My personal life is still suffering terribly. For one, we had the pork incident, just as Ryan described it. I am also aware that I was attempting to set up a sterile field in our bed last night at around 2am or so. Poor Ryan was very, very confused. Ryan is still a saint, and if you see him around, you should buy him a beer because he deserves it  

Just to keep the tally going…

Practice knots tied: 1246

Dreams about suturing/surgery: 2

Hernia repairs: more than I’d ever hoped to see

Call nights left: 2!