"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent"
I guess Eleanor Roosevelt never went to medical school.
I need this shirt. I'll wear it under my standard cardigan and ill-fitting dress pants and maybe it'll help me get through another day of internal medicine.
It's truth time, folks.
I love sharing the happy, healthy side of my life with everyone. If it were really up to me, I'd run 10 miles a day, eat 5 sensible mini meals and sip on 8 glasses of ice water with lemon a day, do juice cleanses, sleep 8 hours a night and wake up feeling rested, and go on vacations (physical and mental) every weekend.
If anyone feels the compulsion to treat me to a spa day (I may have a free day this coming, um,July)-
I will love you forever.
The reality is,
No matter what time I go to bed, I probably only get 5 decent hours of sleep a night because I'm always thinking of things I need to know or do tomorrow.
I haven't had time to get a hair cut in 2 months a year
I can't make my own doctor's appointment because in general, I don't know my schedule from one week to the next.
No matter how you spin it, working on the weekends sucks.
I am judged (and by that I mean graded) on my performance, my personality, my writing skills, my public speaking skills, and my organizational skills every. day.
Hint: when the phrase "Don't be nervous, I'll just be watching you and evaluating your performance" comes up--it only makes me 10x more nervous.
I spent 2 years in the classroom at home listening to podcasts of lectures that taught us bits and pieces of medicine, but was never really taught to put it together. Now I'm expected to not only put it all together, synthesize it, spit it out, and not only sound smart but actually have all of the info to back it up.
Oh yeah, by 8 am, please.
The phrase "you're doing well" is always followed by "but... "
When I ask about the reasoning for a seemingly unnecessary medication or intervention, the answer usually is "well that's just the way we do it here." Or "based on my clinical experience... ."
This answer coming from me doesn't fly with the attendings. And I have pretty much no clinical experience.
Med school makes me crave foods I haven't thought about in years, my body never has any idea when it's hungry, and everything just seems out of whack.
If you're a medical student, an intern, a doctor, you know what I'm talking about it.
If not, tell me what challenges you face in your daily life- sometimes you just need a good vent.
And someone to frickin' relate to.
Anyway...
On a (sort of related) side note, my favorite boots proved 100% NOT waterproof this morning in the piles of dirty precipitation snow in the Burgh.
I may or may not have shamefully purchased a new pair of socks in the hospital gift shop this morning.
This was one question I knew the answer to.
A girl can always use new boots.
Grin and bear it, girl.