Day in the Life: Pediatrics II

This was my last rotation in med school!!! The senioritis was strong, but thankfully, I had a super nice and very understanding preceptor! (He actually gave me a couple afternoons off!) Read on for my very last “Day in the Life” for medical school!

If you’ve been following me on instagram or facebook, you may have noticed that I graduated from med school 2 days ago!!!

…But I was hanging out with my family/friends, celebrating, and saying my goodbyes this weekend, I’ll likely write about the actual ceremony next week.

Day in the Life: Pediatrics II

A Typical Day

Mondays and Fridays were from 8:30 – 5 p.m.-ish. My preceptor ran a busy practice and would see upwards of 40 patients per day. I saw a ton of common things–e.g. allergies, upper respiratory infections (common cold), some type 1 diabetes, flu, strep throat, and also some not-so-common things (Gianotti-Crosti syndrome, a patient with an annular pancreas, Hirschsprung’s disease, ).

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’d go in for clinic in the mornings from about 8-11 a.m., then drive back to town to sit in on didactics with the Pediatrics residents from around 12-3/4 p.m. at the local medical school (not my school :O ).

Wednesday mornings were spent at an absolutely gorgeous new sports medicine institute with facilities that make me crazy jealous. (I feel like I need to watch We Are Marshall at some point, as that’s where I just spent part of my last month!) We ran the pediatric concussion clinic at the Sports Medicine Clinic, so I got to see a lot of sports injuries and what the ImPACT test entailed (it’s implemented by health care professionals for concussion management and safe return to play protocol)!

My preceptor was awesome and super super chill. He’d introduce me to his patients like this: “This is Farrah! She’s a 4th-year medical student. She’s graduating soon and matched into Family Medicine, so she’ll be going to New Jersey very soon! I’m surprised she’s even here!”

N: We’re done until 1:30 over at clinic. …Do you want to save yourself the drive and stay home?
F: …Um. (In the history of my years as a medical student, I have never taken a sick day or said yes to “Do you want to go home?”)
N: You can work on your cases and enjoy life.
F: …Are you sure…? (Holy what, you are an amazing human being.)
N: Yes! Go ahead and go on home, Farrah! I’ll see you on Friday morning!

Meals

I brought pretty much all my lunches! In an effort to make my move to New Jersey a little easier, I tried to clear out (aka eat everything) my food stash, so I shopped all month in the basement of Please Save A Cat, otherwise known as…Farrah’s Storage Space.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I’d get free lunch from the medical school or from the office! (During Nurses’ Week, my preceptor got all the nurses flowers and brought in brownies and homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. :O )

Parking

Free everywhere! I tried to park far, far away from the softball field, to avoid having Cordelia getting beaned by softballs during their practices.

Housing

I bummed on a mattress on the living room floor at my friend Sean’s apartment! He is 1/4 of the HBLer’s + 1/The Vagal Tones (our med school band)! We had Game of Thrones dates every Sunday night, and would also battle each other in Pokemon and help each other finish off our food stores.

• Were you afraid of going to the doctor when you were little?
• Do you have a favorite dinosaur? Mine was the stegosaurus because I felt like it wasn’t ever anyone’s favorite!

Check out my other Day In The Life posts!