What We Have Been Doing

It has been a whirlwind since graduation!  We started our our internship on June 15; both of us on the surgery service, just at different hospitals.  It was very scary those first few weeks; it was hard to adjust to being called doctor, to having nurses call us for orders, and for patients' families asking to speak to the doctor and realizing that that was us!  Our typical workday during surgery was 6:00 am until 7:00 pm (that was a short day).  We did this 5 days a week, as well as working 1-2 nights a week on call and 2-3 weekends a month on call.  

Here is what our call is like:  we and 1-2 other interns cover the ENTIRE hospital.  This means we do all admissions from the emergency room, handle anything that happens on the floor (patients who need pain meds, have chest pain, have high blood sugars, etc), and respond to any codes (when people either become unresponsive, their heart stops beating, or they stop breathing we all run there to start CPR and other life-saving measures).  We are lucky and have a resident who covers the ICU to call as back-up, but for the most part we are on our own.  When we work these calls we work 5pm-7am during the week (plus work a half-day the next day) and 7am-7am on the weekends.  Things are VERY busy usually and we are lucky to get to sit down.  I don't think either of us has really slept while on call.  It usually works out that just as you have made it to the call room to lay down, the pager goes off and we are walking back to the emergency department or heading to the floors.  It's non-stop fun!

Needless to say, working these kinds of hours make us very tired, so when we are not working, we spend a lot of time sleeping and relaxing.  Working as a doctor is scary and I have definitely had my moments where I thought I was going to cry; its very overwhelming to feel the responsibility of the patients' lives in your hands.  But as the time has passed and we have gotten more experienced, it has gotten easier.  It still is scary at times and I still get butterflies in my stomach when I walk into the hospital, but its getting better.  Its hard to believe that this is really my job now.

Currently, Mike is working days in the emergency department and I am working at an ob/gyn clinic.  He is mostly doing admissions and I am mostly doing annual exams and pregnancy checks.  Neither of us care very much for these rotations, but they are easy and the hours are a lot nicer (7a-5p).  We are hoping to have Labor Day weekend off, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Other than working, we have not been up to much else.  We finally got our basement organized (it only took 2 months) and we have been trying to learn our way around our new town.  We love living in NJ and love the community we live in.  There are so many cute restaurants and everything is walkable.  Mike and I have been riding our bikes a lot too.  I took mine to the library the other day; it was so nice.  We have met some of our neighbors (one of the girls who lives 2 doors down dogsits for us when we are on call) and have met some great people through our new church.  All things considered, we are doing well and are pretty happy.

Sorry for writing such a long post.  I have felt bad about the time I have let pass without updating this and I know that many friends and family members have been curious about our new jobs.  Hope this helps fill in the gaps that emails and text messages leave out!