Gaining My Independence
I “successfully” made it through my first two days of psychiatry residency. In short, it wasn’t nearly as horrifying as I had feared it would be. But it was strangely mystifying.
I was incredibly lucky to have a three-day weekend to recuperate from all that is residency. It will likely be a very long time before I am this lucky again, so I have been trying to enjoy this mini-vacation.
Because of residency orientation, I had to basically work for 15 days straight. Although I didn’t put in particularly long hours, it was still quite tiring, and I realized how important it is to have at least one day off a week (thank you residency duty hours!)
I spent the entire day in bed yesterday (literally!) and it was just what the doctor ordered. Today is the Fourth of July. I could have spent the whole day today and tonight celebrating my country’s independence, but I chose an alternate route. I have spent the day today catching up on the million errands, which had been causing me all kinds of anxiety for the past two weeks.
I got quite a bit accomplished today, and hope to finish up my “to-do” list tomorrow. I think this is probably the first Fourth of July that I’ve not had to work and chose not to “celebrate.”
Going back to the topic of residency, I think the most difficult part so far (as I previously mentioned) has been adjusting back to the “psychiatric” mentality. My attending told me to perform a full psychiatric evaluation, including a mental status exam, and I realized that I had almost completely forgotten what it was, or how to perform it!
Hopefully, everything will start coming back to me in time, and I will begin to think like a psychiatrist. Speaking of, I hope to write a blog post for the Ink Blot very soon on the topic of “thinking like a psychiatrist.”
Anyway, more on that soon! Happy Fourth, world!
Photo: My friend throwing some awesome gang signs!