Tomorrow is a big day. My first official day as a resident. I start on Hem-Onc elective, which will mostly consist of days in clinic seeing patients during surprisingly regular hours. After all I had been through in the past two years, however, this almost didn't happen. When I received my results last week, and everything was cleared for me to start, the registrar of my school faxed a letter to my residency program, verifying that I did indeed have my degree, and that I could start residency come tomorrow.
However, it would not be that simple. Even this, the simplest step of receiving clearance would become complicated. After informing my program that my registrar would be sending notice on Wednesday, I was told on Friday (TWO days later) by both my program director and coordinator that they did not receive the FAX, and needed the letter before I could begin. I thought to myself - that's strange, my registrar was always dependable, and said that he had faxed it over, as well as mailed it - but nevertheless, this would be easy. I would just call up my registrar and have him fax it again. Again, more complicated than it sounded. Friday would be the one day that our always present registrar would take off, and nobody else in the office would be able to help me. Now, I was beginning to worry. I wasn't quite sure what no letter would mean, but when I attempted to pick up my ID and other items necessary to begin work, I was told that I could not have it until that letter appeared. Noon was quickly approaching, and I knew I had limited time before I would no longer be able to get a hold of anyone at school that may have been able to help, and I was stuck in my NRP class all day, making it impossible to spend more than 5-10 minutes at a time making phone calls.
I knew that if I did not get this clearance on Friday, all the efforts in the past 2 years to make sure my schedule got back on track would fall short. I was not about to let this one piece of paper stop me. Since I didn't know what would happen if I did not get the letter, and I had been burned by similar events earlier, which had caused long delays in my education, I knew I couldn't take any chances. After my trying to recall from memory failed, I quickly called my home and asked my mother to look up a phone number and call my academic dean, who I trusted to be able to do something. In the next break that we had during our class, I found out that my dean had come through, and that he would take care of the situation, although I wanted to be sure. Just in the nick of time, I thought, since I was not able to get a hold of him when I called him myself to thank him myself. When I went down to the office to inform my program coordinator, I was told very nonchalantly that she had received the original fax after all, and that it had just been under a few papers, and then was given my ID, which would allow me to get other things necessary for work.
I only wonder if things are always going to be as they have been for the last couple of years. It seems as if every little step that I have had to take in order to get myself back to where I am has taken that extra, hard-fought effort in order to get people to do things that they should have done in the first place. Almost as if life has been chiding me, "How badly do you really want this?"
With that fax, I've finally made it back. And hopefully, I can continue to climb.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Back to square one...a bittersweet day
The day could not have started out any better. In short, the last two years of medical school had been extremely rough due to some circumstances beyond my control, and I had been anxiously awaiting results that would serve as the official ending to that chapter of my life. When I received the e-mail that would either inform me that I was qualified to be a resident or tell me that I probably was in the wrong career path, I clicked on the link, entered my information and slowly scrolled up the page to see the tops of the letters PASS. Needless to say, I was overjoyed. My closest friends know exactly what I have been through over the last two years, obstacles that would take pages of my blog to describe. I had been hoping that this would have happened before graduation, so that I could truly enjoy it, but this moment was definitely redemption. Things were finally almost back on track. All that was left now was to sign the lease I had been waiting to sign.
As great as that news had made the day, however, my luck was not meant to stay. A few days ago, I had finally found it, the apartment that I would occupy (or probably more accurately, my things would occupy more than I would) for the next three years. A large 2 BR, 2 bath apartment above the storefronts of the bustling village of Great Neck, NY, plus indoor parking for a steal (comparatively to area prices, that is. When compared to Cleveland prices, I would have been paying twice as much as I did for my beautiful 1 BR apt). Today, I had gone in to seal the deal and sign the lease since I finally had some free time before orientation, and the very patient and kind realtor that I had been working with who had found me the place, showed it to me one last time before we went back to her office to call the owner and take care of the deposits and paperwork. Then came the moment of heartbreak. Just before I left the office, a colleague of my realtor overheard us talking and quickly interjected "Wait, are you talking about the apartment at xxx on xxx Road?" My realtor replied, "Yes," to which her colleague replied that she had just gotten checks for the security, first month's rent, and commission, just a couple of HOURS prior, if that. My heart sank, and I drove home (my temporary one at my parents' friends place) and restarted my housing search, only able to find one other apartment in the area that I wanted to be in, but it was a 1 BR/1 BA/no parking, at the same price, which I found out I wouldn't be able to see until Sunday because of our orientation schedule, assuming it too doesn't disappear from the market by then. I ended up playing the "If only" game for the rest of the day.
Today, the third day of orientation, was the shortest, at 5 1/2 hours. We would finish our PALS course today. For those of you non-medical folk, PALS is short for Pediatric Advanced Life Support, which is basically the advanced course which comes after a basic CPR class, but for children. However, because I had spent the majority of the day working on my housing situation, I had not been able to review anything that I would have reviewed otherwise. Luckily this was one of those courses where the instructors would do everything possible to make sure you passed the evaluation stations, saying things like "This big monitor is in my way - I can't see, " so that we didn't forget parts of what needed to be done. Our group had fun with the scenarios, acting out as much as we possibly could, and imitating the lifelike situations shown on the video, which were anything but, when it comes to what actually happens during a code.
Overall, a good, but very unsettling day, with just one big obstacle left in trying to get myself back on track.
As great as that news had made the day, however, my luck was not meant to stay. A few days ago, I had finally found it, the apartment that I would occupy (or probably more accurately, my things would occupy more than I would) for the next three years. A large 2 BR, 2 bath apartment above the storefronts of the bustling village of Great Neck, NY, plus indoor parking for a steal (comparatively to area prices, that is. When compared to Cleveland prices, I would have been paying twice as much as I did for my beautiful 1 BR apt). Today, I had gone in to seal the deal and sign the lease since I finally had some free time before orientation, and the very patient and kind realtor that I had been working with who had found me the place, showed it to me one last time before we went back to her office to call the owner and take care of the deposits and paperwork. Then came the moment of heartbreak. Just before I left the office, a colleague of my realtor overheard us talking and quickly interjected "Wait, are you talking about the apartment at xxx on xxx Road?" My realtor replied, "Yes," to which her colleague replied that she had just gotten checks for the security, first month's rent, and commission, just a couple of HOURS prior, if that. My heart sank, and I drove home (my temporary one at my parents' friends place) and restarted my housing search, only able to find one other apartment in the area that I wanted to be in, but it was a 1 BR/1 BA/no parking, at the same price, which I found out I wouldn't be able to see until Sunday because of our orientation schedule, assuming it too doesn't disappear from the market by then. I ended up playing the "If only" game for the rest of the day.
Today, the third day of orientation, was the shortest, at 5 1/2 hours. We would finish our PALS course today. For those of you non-medical folk, PALS is short for Pediatric Advanced Life Support, which is basically the advanced course which comes after a basic CPR class, but for children. However, because I had spent the majority of the day working on my housing situation, I had not been able to review anything that I would have reviewed otherwise. Luckily this was one of those courses where the instructors would do everything possible to make sure you passed the evaluation stations, saying things like "This big monitor is in my way - I can't see, " so that we didn't forget parts of what needed to be done. Our group had fun with the scenarios, acting out as much as we possibly could, and imitating the lifelike situations shown on the video, which were anything but, when it comes to what actually happens during a code.
Overall, a good, but very unsettling day, with just one big obstacle left in trying to get myself back on track.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Fresh starts: a second first attempt
Now that my tumultuous third and fourth years of medical school are now over, I have now moved onto New York - Long Island, not the city - to start the next chapter of my life as a resident. Yesterday was the first day of what may be my last orientation (in the near future), and I met the other 38 excited, yet very scared SCH interns-to-be. I walked into the room, and recognized some faces from Facebook, but none of those that I had already met had yet gotten there. It has been 4 years since I last had to introduce myself to a brand new group of people that I would spend an extended amount of time with, and 7 years since moving to a completely new city, but this somehow felt different. I felt as if these would be the people I would form bonds with that wouldn't be like others - that residency would be like a rite of passage that we are going through together.
As the day went on, we had a line of people parade into the room to tell us how important the work we would be doing would be, and how important it was for us to build trust in our patients, etc, etc. You get the picture. The kinds of things you already know, but almost a sort of pep talk before we actually start doing it for real. But for 8 1/2 hours, interspersed with short meal breaks, even those who were excited became tired. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, having sat in a shirt and tie all day for pictures, which would be the final part of the day. As soon as the cameramen came and started, I happened to be standing near the area where they set up, went first, and got out of the door as soon as I could. Later, I'd learn that one of the program directors actually stopped them because they came too early, and the Child Life department did a presentation about what they do before the cameramen returned for most of the others. At that point, I was sure glad that I had been first, because I, like my colleagues, was exhausted. And this was just the first day of orientation.
So this would be a fresh start for me, a way to wipe clean the slate of the last two exhausting vacationless years, aside from a couple of 3-day weekends. And although my first one won't be until August, I still already feel refreshed, and ready for the hospital, to tackle the challenges that come my way in the next 3 years. And a fresh start to my blog, which I haven't touched since the aforementioned years of medical school. Hopefully a good way that I can keep my medical school, business school, college, high school friends and family members in this busy life.
Today (now, what is yesterday), we didn't start until 1 PM, which was nice, but then had to go through more presentations which were not of much practical use, until about 7 PM when we were recharged with a pizza dinner, and then had some practical workstations for Day 1 of our PALS course. It was very reminiscent of the training that we got during our "bridge week" before starting 3rd year rotations, except this time, we will be assessed and tested on how well we respond in emergency situations. Another exhausting day, as we didn't get out of the hospital until about 10:15 at night. Thankfully, we won't restart until 4 PM today, which may give me time to actually finally sign a lease for a place to live for the next 3 years. Living out of a suitcase is fun for a while, but I imagine that when I am on call every 4th night, or sometimes every 2nd night, it won't be the best thing to come home to.
In other noteworthy events, I was able to take a drive to explore a bit of my new surroundings last night, to get to know some of the surrounding areas while I still actually had some time. I wasn't able to find a great sports bar just yet at which to catch my beloved Philadelphia teams (especially since I am now in rival country), but found some trendy areas with nightspots and restaurants. Not quite NYC, but it will have to do when there is limited time off to actually get out of the hospital and/or home. I was also able to take in a quick lunch with a few of my fellow interns at the nearby Skyline Diner, after the recommendation that we NOT go to our hospital cafeteria. Thankfully, our meal allowance is now money added to our paycheck, so that we are not required to use it there.
I can say with full confidence that I miss the Cleveland places that I've frequented so often in the last seven years, but am very much looking forward to this new start... in all aspects.
As the day went on, we had a line of people parade into the room to tell us how important the work we would be doing would be, and how important it was for us to build trust in our patients, etc, etc. You get the picture. The kinds of things you already know, but almost a sort of pep talk before we actually start doing it for real. But for 8 1/2 hours, interspersed with short meal breaks, even those who were excited became tired. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, having sat in a shirt and tie all day for pictures, which would be the final part of the day. As soon as the cameramen came and started, I happened to be standing near the area where they set up, went first, and got out of the door as soon as I could. Later, I'd learn that one of the program directors actually stopped them because they came too early, and the Child Life department did a presentation about what they do before the cameramen returned for most of the others. At that point, I was sure glad that I had been first, because I, like my colleagues, was exhausted. And this was just the first day of orientation.
So this would be a fresh start for me, a way to wipe clean the slate of the last two exhausting vacationless years, aside from a couple of 3-day weekends. And although my first one won't be until August, I still already feel refreshed, and ready for the hospital, to tackle the challenges that come my way in the next 3 years. And a fresh start to my blog, which I haven't touched since the aforementioned years of medical school. Hopefully a good way that I can keep my medical school, business school, college, high school friends and family members in this busy life.
Today (now, what is yesterday), we didn't start until 1 PM, which was nice, but then had to go through more presentations which were not of much practical use, until about 7 PM when we were recharged with a pizza dinner, and then had some practical workstations for Day 1 of our PALS course. It was very reminiscent of the training that we got during our "bridge week" before starting 3rd year rotations, except this time, we will be assessed and tested on how well we respond in emergency situations. Another exhausting day, as we didn't get out of the hospital until about 10:15 at night. Thankfully, we won't restart until 4 PM today, which may give me time to actually finally sign a lease for a place to live for the next 3 years. Living out of a suitcase is fun for a while, but I imagine that when I am on call every 4th night, or sometimes every 2nd night, it won't be the best thing to come home to.
In other noteworthy events, I was able to take a drive to explore a bit of my new surroundings last night, to get to know some of the surrounding areas while I still actually had some time. I wasn't able to find a great sports bar just yet at which to catch my beloved Philadelphia teams (especially since I am now in rival country), but found some trendy areas with nightspots and restaurants. Not quite NYC, but it will have to do when there is limited time off to actually get out of the hospital and/or home. I was also able to take in a quick lunch with a few of my fellow interns at the nearby Skyline Diner, after the recommendation that we NOT go to our hospital cafeteria. Thankfully, our meal allowance is now money added to our paycheck, so that we are not required to use it there.
I can say with full confidence that I miss the Cleveland places that I've frequented so often in the last seven years, but am very much looking forward to this new start... in all aspects.
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