Sunday mornings

HAVEN'T SEEN my brother Ralph for more than a month now. My mother must have told him of my present state—exhausted and sleepless—when he called home. While I was looking after ward patients complaining of new onset chest pains, he texted me, "Let's get some wine when you're free"—his subtle way of finally admitting that Medicine is truly harder than Law. (Feel free to disagree, of course: that is one pointless debate that can never be resolved.)
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Feedly is a great alternative to Google Reader

GOOGLE READER will be gone for good, and today is the last day I'm ever going to use it. The announcement was made around the time when the new pope was installed. The news saddened me, an avid blog reader, because Google Reader has been a reliable, reader-friendly RSS reader. I didn't have to visit individual websites; I just logged on to my Reader account, and I could read all the entries there.

What are good alternatives available?

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Coping mechanism

DESPITE my self-imposed moratorium on book-buying, I got myself a couple more titles. Hoarding may be the more appropriate term, but I like to refer to my behavior as a means to keep my sanity. My justification: I've been swallowed by IM this past month; I needed to do something to keep the stress off.
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Afternoon delights

AFTER MANNING the Out-Patient Department (OPD) triage at 11 am and handling one patient at the Dermatology Clinic, I went home to sleep. I woke up at 4 pm and noticed that a region of my hair, particularly the right temporoparietal area, was flattened—a Grade A recommendation for me to get a haircut immediately.
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6:30 am

EVERY MORNING I wake him up, tapping his left arm or stroking the white tufts of hair on his head. My 70-year-old patient opens his eyes like a newborn, squints at the beginnings of what will turn out to be a blinding daylight, and looks at me.
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Internal Medicine Ward: Weeks 1 and 2 (May 29 - June 11, 2013)

OUR FIRST WEEK in Internal Medicine was harrowing. Handling up to ten patients per person was commonplace, and monitoring for four to six hours straight wasn't extraordinary--everybody was doing it, anyway, so why should we complain like ignorant hormonal teenagers? If we could survive this IM clerkless existence, we could probably survive the rest of internship.
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Wet armpits

WE'VE DISCHARGED most of our patients, and for the first time in two weeks I felt as if a backbreaking load was taken off my shoulders.






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Random updates from my Internal Medicine rotation.

I APOLOGIZE for the lack of updates. I've been exhausted to write anything coherent, but tonight I make an exception.

1. Internal Medicine is sweeter the second time around—yes, even if there aren't any clerks to help us out. I'm not saying we don't need them. We do, and we're glad they're arriving next week.

2. Two mortalities in two days. I thought I could get used to seeing death, but I took care of those patients—my patients—and I felt terrible. I was told to leave all the burdens in the hospital—but I practically live at Wards 1 and 3 now.
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