This is the End
“This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes…again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need…of some…stranger’s hand
In a…desperate land
Lost in a Roman…wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane”- The Doors, “The End” lyrics
Tomorrow is my last day of neurology consults, and it will only be a half day because I have psychiatry didactics in the afternoon. I have thoroughly enjoyed my two months of neurology. While it’s been a great learning experience, I certainly do miss psychiatry. But I see the incredible value of learning neurology, especially as a psychiatrist. There is so much overlap. And I feel much better prepared to deal with neurological conditions in my patients than I did 2 months ago.
Next up, I have two months of out-patient medicine and then one month of in-patient medicine and then it’s the end of my intern year and back to psychiatry for the last 3 years of my residency.
A random thought to share: I really do love doing “procedures.” As much as it sucks when your patient can’t get their CT angiogram because they have crappy veins and you’ve been sticking them for over an hour and can’t get a line and are frustrated beyond anything else, I do enjoy the satisfaction of a simple procedure well done. I like successfully putting in nasogastric tubes so that my patient can be fed and receive their medications. I like drawing STAT cardiac enzymes to rule out acute coronary syndrome. And I think I will actually miss some of the more routine and mundane procedures, which will be less commonplace during my years in psychiatry residency and years as a professional psychiatrist.
However, I am so passionate about psychiatry that I’m sure I will deal, and will possibly even come up with creative solutions to the lack of “procedures.”
Also, all the children are insane. (Figure THAT one out!)
Photo: My doggy Scope wearing his “Cone of Shame” and makeshift doggy-diaper-sling-so-he-doesn’t-lick-his-wounds-contraption.