End of days

So I have been MIA for quite sometime now. I mostly have been working my behind off up here in Frozenville, aka Washington.

So I had to learn how to drive in the snow. Like real snow, it sucks with a small car. I will be buying a 4X4 at the end of this year. Probably a highlander or something. Definitely need that big 4X4 that can whoop ass in bad weather.

So I hope the preggo isn't being too much of a pain in the ass. I'd tell you to push her ass down some stairs, but I guess that would be insensitive. Although who are we kidding, sensitivity is not something I care about.

Well I've been very addicted to the pc game world of warcraft. Been playing it for the past 3 months. Man, that game is like crack, so hard to break away from it. If Kim didn't need the computer right now, I'd be on it right now. If only my laptop could handle it without overheating. Sorry, that was the addiction talking, sigh.... I miss my shaman.

Nerding it up... Joe out.

damn that womb

Over the course of the last few months, I've had the pleasure of working with some of the worst interns I've ever seen in my life. Actually, some of the worst medical students too. They're like living stereotypes. The DO sub-I medical students took more "sick days" than all of the urology residents have taken in their entire residencies. The Preliminary surgical interns regularly miss critical labs, choose not to check patients in the middle of the night when they have problems, and generally tend to do stupid shit that hurt the patients. There are many docs with DO's who turn out fine and there are many people who don't match that have the potential to be great doctors, but a lot of them are where they are for a reason. If they're not that bright or have had life throw them a curveball, that's one thing. Laziness is never excusable, especially in surgery.

I'm all for women in medicine, pursuing their dreams, whatever, but seriously, pregnant women in residency make life miserable for everyone else. One of the interns that is on rotation with me regularly calls in with cramps whenever she is scheduled to be on call. It probably wouldn't bother me as much if she weren't such a shitty intern before the cramps set in. She almost let one of my post-ops bleed to death because she took an extended dinner/nap and she blew out one of my patient's kidneys because she never bothered to check if a tube was coming out of the bladder or the kidney. Damn, so annoyed. Now she is having cramps, so I can't have a day off for the next 3-4 weeks because I need to cover her weekends. This on top of the weekends she couldn't find a babysitter even though she had a month's advance notice before her husband took off for business trips. Seriously...it's killing us. I'm glad I'm on a Q3 service because otherwise, I'd literally be on call every day that I stepped into the hospital because we have to cover for the pregnant chick. Who the hell decides to get knocked up before their intern/prelim year...that's the year to shine and be a rock star. She sucks. For the patients' sakes, I hope she doesn't match.

I'll probably take heat for this post, but here are the reason I've heard for having children during residency.

The most valid reason is because of the biological clock. After a certain age, it gets harder to have kids and there tends to be more complications.
The other bullshit/selfish reasons.
1. It's better to have the residency program pay for their pregnancy, rather than lose money with days off while they're in practice.
2. There are always other residents who'll cover them during maternity leave/crampy days

-bender is tired of the _______________________ of county employees
(laziness, stupidity, selfishness)

I hate the holidays

Man, he's a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

It's strange, I'm especially nasty and short tempered in the hospital during the holidays. Normally I don't mind working myself into the ground. On the contrary, it usually feels good to have a long day as long as I've been doing procedures/seeing different types of patients and feel like I'm learning and becoming a better doctor. Normally, I love it when the streets are empty. I zoom in at 4am and am gunning to go after my first cup of coffee...no more soy. Makes me gassy. Anyhow, something about the holidays. Everything from the decorations, having to say happy/merry whatever to all the music is incredibly annoying. It's really the only time in the year when you feel different. Everyone works hard. period. However, being on call during christmas/new year's/thanksgiving/etc sucks...seriously, there are few things more depressing than just sitting in the hospital alone in your call room reading about your patients. I can't quite put my finger on it. Yea...the holidays suck. It just gets harder and harder to get out of bed every morning.

On the plusside, since there are fewer inpatients and patients forget to show up to their clinic appointments, it leaves me with a little bit more time to scrub into cool cases. It's a blast to operate with your friends. On the flipside, nothing will get you clowned faster than having your ipod playlist blast songs from moulin rouge, mariah carey. It gets even more awkward when the attending is in the room and Dr dre and snoop dogg start rapping about rough sex, drugs and jizzing on people's faces...damn shuffle. back to work...

-bender