A Good Day

It's been a good day.

1. I finally had an adult patient with a "fix-able" disease. He had pseudogout, which is readily cured with medication. I called the rheum consult and happened to be there when they came by to examine the patient. So I went in with them to see what I could learn. I had forgotten how much I liked rheumatology, haha.

2. I was able to answer most of my attending's questions without sounding/feeling stupid. This feels like an achievement for me because sometimes I feel like no matter how much I read, I fail to recall what the attending determines to be the most salient points. But today I was prepared (or at least phrased my answer in an acceptable way if I didn't exactly know the answer).

3. My attending gave me feedback on my performance. She told me how proud she was of my progress from day 1 to today. I went from an unsure and kind of shell-shocked student to someone who's confident and proactive in taking responsibility in my patient care. And I do feel like a different person since day 1 last week (I almost can't believe I've been doing this for 2 weeks already!). I chose the hospitalist service precisely because I knew my attending would throw me into the fray and force me to be an independent learner without training wheels, and I got what I wanted.

4. As such, my attending offered to write me a letter of recommendation for residency later! She told me how she's written LORs and how she's called residency programs to give her former students an extra edge. Now, when an attending offers to write a LOR, that means that the attending truly regarded you highly. I hope I can continue this momentum with future attendings on rotations down the road.

5. I met the city's oldest woman cop/detective! She quickly became my favorite patient (though she wasn't technically my patient). She was great to talk to. :-)
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Yesterday I hung out with Drew a bit. I picked him up from his house and we went to a coffee shop. We sat down and chatted and people-watched. He kept pointing out all the cute guys and guessing which were likely gay. Btw, I still don't get what people see in asses/what they notice about it; it's simply a body part that I rarely pay attention to. Someone enlighten me?

Anyway we had some good convo. He told me about this guy he likes and likes him back, but they both agreed that neither were in any position to date the other. I suppose that keeps the window open for me a bit, but Drew alluded to the fact that he just got comfortable being single again and would like to stay that way for a bit longer. I'll respect that . . . and also I couldn't get the right words I had wanted to say out of my mouth, lol. And I still couldn't get a feel if I even have a shot. Fail.

I did, however, manage to get him to take his shirt off in front of me. But I assure you it's for a legit reason. He had this rather nasty cough on and off as well as some sinus issues. I just so happened (unplanned, I assure you) to have my white coat and stethoscope in the back seat of my car. So he humored me in allowing me to listen to his lungs and heart. His heart sounded good but his upper lungs did sound a bit congested to me.

All in all, it's always great to hang out with him when we manage to align our schedules.