Sunday, December 07, 2008

Taking it up a notch

The first month (has it already been a month?) back at school has been going well so far. I made it through two weeks of neurology and two weeks of surgery seminars and anesthesia. Anesthesia was really fun with lots of teaching, opportunities to do IVs and intubations, and talk to patients. Next week I start neurosurgery, a rotation that is notorious for being particularly harsh; a brutal combination of long hours, little responsibility and brutal bedside grilling.

I have been doing well when I am actually doing things, but when I am idle for more than a couple of minutes I fall asleep. In one particularly embarrassing instance I dozed off right next to an anesthetist that was giving me and two other students a talk about chronic pain. I am just thankful I didn't start snoring. With 6:30 starts and lots of standing around doing nothing, I am a little nervous about neurosurgery.

The little guys has been smiling for quite awhile and will chuckle occasionally now, but whenever we pull out the camera he gets more interested in staring at the lens. This is the best I can capture so far.