Tales from the Emergency Room and Beyond...

Wow. Was I really this bitter through all of residency?

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3...

I'm not even sure how to do this anymore. And I doubt anyone is still listening. But apparently, Blogger will let blogs lie dormant for 2 years + without shutting them down. Huh. Who knew?

The danger in that is that inevitably, after practicing emergency medicine for 2.5 years, things will eventually wear you down enough that they will come boiling to the surface in a tsunami of resentment, irritation and rage at... well, everyone. At patients, at their families, at other doctors, at various support staff, at administration, at politicians... no one is safe.

And then, even if you thought you'd never blog again, you find yourself longing for an outlet... something that isn't satisfied by the soundbites generated by a Twitter account.

I may be back. Unless I can talk myself out of it.

Miss Me?

It's been a busy time since I last posted. I finished residency. For good. I worked full-time at a walk-in clinic, which made me realize several things:

1. I can deal with uncertainty
2. Walk-in clinic medicine is not bad medicine by definition. It is what you make it.
3. When you have no idea what is going on, have the person come back in a couple of days. If the problem hasn't resolved, it will likely have declared itself.
4. You really do prescribe the same 5 meds over and over.
5. Improving your flow at a WIC will carry over into other areas.

Most importantly, it made me realize that I would NOT want to do WIC medicine for the rest of my career.

Thankfully, I packed up my family and we headed down to our new town. And I started my new job. For the first time ever... I am THE doc. Staff. The buck stops here. The end of the line. Holy... crap.

After much time had gone by and I had no urge to update here, I wondered if it was time to hang up my blogging shoes. It's been a good 3 years. But I don't know that I have much more to say.

Then again, maybe I do.

I'll continue to ponder this one for the next little while. Thanks for your patience, for those of you still checking in here.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

The Home Stretch

Time to Fess Up.

I didn't pass. There, I said it. It's official.

I'm okay with it. I know that it was a long shot. It was still a hit to the pride (hell, I think the last time I failed ANY exam I was about 19 years old) but I'm over it. And now I actually feel much better. I'm back to studying, but the stuff I WANT to know... not the stuff I think will be on some stupid exam.

Hopefully, it won't affect my employability. Most people just assume that since I'm not finished residency until December, that I haven't written it yet. I don't correct them.

So where do things stand now? I am 15 emerg shifts away from the end of residency. And in that amount of time, I also have to complete a research project (a study of consultant response times to pages from the ED and how the delay affects ED flow) and complete enough scans to become an independent practitioner of ED Echo.

Oh, and at the same time I'm still working at the clinic, looking for a job and trying to be a mom. Gah.

We're talking to four different communities right now, and visiting three of them next week. I'll keep you posted.

Bitter Barn: Population, Me.