Reflections on PGY2 as a Family Medicine Resident

Welcome to Medical Mondays! This is a continuation of sorts of my reflection on intern year — so much has happened over the last year!

Getting here for my actual interview two(?!) years ago was an adventure all on its own (for future reference, try to never schedule 4 interviews across 3 days in 3 different states!)

…but it was obviously worth it, given that I ended up matching to this program. Some rather awesome things the faculty told me during my interview still stick with me to this day!

Reflections On PGY2 As A Family Medicine Resident

I’ve officially finished all my rotations for second year, so I figured I’d share with you some reflections on my second year as a family medicine resident! :]

• Being the first Family Medicine resident ever to cover a Rutgers football game!
• Being accepted into the Sports Medicine fellowship track and being assigned a high school to cover games for
• Volunteering at Promise Clinic
• Being awarded the Frank C. Snope Healer award by my residency program!

Favorite Rotation: Sports Medicine! But I also really liked my Geriatrics, Women’s Health, and Community Medicine rotations!

5 hours of sleep in a 60+ hour period…it was worth it though!

Memorable Moments:

• Toward the end of intern year, I saw a patient in her teens who’d come in “for a physical,” but sensed that something wasn’t quite right and asked if there was any chance that she might be pregnant. She whispered that that was actually the reason why she’d come in, and I ended up adopting her as one of my maternity care patients. If you’ve been here for a while, you probably know that I have zero interest in obstetrics, but she’s the sweetest patient I have, and when she reached out to hug me after one of our visits and asked if I’d be there for her delivery, I couldn’t possibly say no. That promise I made is the reason why I ended up violating my duty hours to the max, but…what matters is that I got to be there for her. :]! Her baby’s super cute!
• While I was on night service, we had a patient who was super anxious so if my night wasn’t going too terribly, I’d go visit in the evenings to talk with him and feed him since he had trouble eating. I got mistaken by his nurses as one of his family members and I later heard her comment that she’d never seen a resident do that.
• We had a somewhat difficult-ish (attitude-wise) patient while I was on inpatient service but I’d go to check on him after we were done rounding. He shared his observations of my interactions with him when I was with the entire medical team vs. when it was just me (“I don’t know if you realize it, but you’re a lot less formal and so much more relaxed.” …he definitely isn’t wrong. :o ). We came to an understanding and he became a lot more cooperative with our medical management.
• I was having a horrible day at the office–running super behind and feeling frustrated and incompetent when I walked in to see my last patient of the day. She turned out to be the wife of one of my regulars, who’d told her he really liked me and had recommended that she come see me as well. Their daughter gave me a hug at the end of the visit and told me I was one of the sweetest doctors she’d ever met. <3

Also, thank goodness for awesome coworker friends. <3 I was working nights and super sick and my friend noticed me looking like death from across the room so she gave me her bottle of water.

(At our hospital, “Code Purple” is a non-patient medical emergency.)

Most Interesting Cases:

• 19 year old who came in with all kinds of issues–recently discharged from a neighboring hospital for vomiting blood, unspecified rash, headaches, fatigue, dizziness, a strange rash, her cousin telling her she’d “been acting really weird ever since joining a self-help group,” suspecting that she was being poisoned with kratom…the back story was that she had basically joined a cult where the leader was being investigated because the group had ties to sex trafficking. Thankfully, I managed to get her to leave.
• A new patient who got bumped onto my schedule because someone else had been running late–he also had half a billion problems and a very vague medical history that included him being in a coma for 8 months the previous year for unknown reasons that led to bilateral amputations of his feet and a heart valve replacement (+ a bunch of other things, including hepatitis C, a GI bleed, depression/anxiety and insomnia). He now has a home, has quit smoking, is being treated for hep C and is putting his life back together! :]!

My mottos for the year:

• “Fake it til you make it” gets to stay from last year!
• “Be kind and the rest will follow.”

Least Favorite Rotation: EBM, aka evidence-based medicine. (I’m not the biggest fan of research.)

Worst Mistake: Sending in a prescription for a lidocaine gargle for a patient with a sore throat where I completely effed up the dosing. Thankfully, this was caught and I called the pharmacy before they’d even gone to pick it up.

Most Annoying Case: After hours and on weekends when we’re working in the hospital, we cover answering service for our office, aka our emergency line. There’s a patient who calls several times a week and always seems to know when I’m on–I’ve been haunted by his calls since last August and he never calls about anything that’s actually emergent, but still keeps me on the line for ages. :|

But speaking of covering our emergency line, sometimes we do get calls that aren’t for things like scheduling appointments or refills for tylenol/ibuprofen/naproxen (I wish I was kidding about this)!

I’m the first to admit I’m not amazing at reading MRIs, but I’m fairly certain anyone can tell that this is not good. ._.

(Thankfully, I got them to go straight to the ER and a neurosurgeon drilled in two Burr holes–the patient is doing a-okay now!)

• What’s something you’ve learned this year?
• What’s something you want to work on improving this year?