Medical School Update

Hello again!

I just wanted to check in again now that I am done with my inpatient Internal Medicine month. I like inpatient medicine, but I do not like working 6 days per week. I guess I'll get used to it next year, but for now, I'd like to have my weekends. I was on call every third day for the past month and admitted patients for everything from a tremor to a stroke. I was glad to end my rotation last Friday because the Secret Service showed up on Friday and started taking the names of everyone who would be working last weekend. I guess Obama or someone was coming to visit the wounded soldiers, which is nice of them, but it creates a security nightmare to try to deal with besides the normal craziness caused by the construction going on to combine Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center. This was also my last required rotation of medical school. From this point forward, I'm just doing electives to fill the time until graduation!

Now I'm doing an outpatient rotation in Pulmonology at the National Naval Medical Center. From what I gathered today, it looks like I'll spend a lot of my time learning about asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, and lung cancer. I'll also get to spend a couple of days per week watching bronchoscopies, which can be used to biopsy suspicious masses or remove peanuts from kids' windpipes. I am looking forward to this being my last real rotation of medical school because during April I'll be doing a radiology rotation which will entail lots of sitting in dark rooms looking at x-rays!