Doctor Psychobabble

Last Friday was the beginning of the Gay Pride Festival in New York City. I was lucky enough to have the next day off from the hospital and my very good friend Bennifer and his boyfriend Mariano bussed up from Washington D.C. to Pride it up and visit me in Crooklyn.

At some point in the evening, we ended up at the Duplex, an awesome piano bar in the West Village. After having some drinks we wandered outside and ran into a massive mob of people, rainbow flags and cops on horses. We eventually realized that gay marriage had just been legalized in New York, and we were standing right in front of the Stonewall Inn. This was the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which are widely considered to be the single most important events leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United States.

And there we were, jumping up and down in the streets, screaming, hugging, laughing and crying. A moment in history. A moment frozen in time.

Oh, and during all of the celebration, I somehow lost my iPhone.

So, the good news is that I was dead center in the middle of a celebration that will forever go down in history. But the bad news is that my iPhone was sacrificed.

I’d say it was a fair exchange.

Anyway, yay, yay, yay for New York joining the “smart states!”

Photos: I lost all of the photos on my phone, but I swiped these two awesome ones from Bennifer and Chris.

Please check out my latest post on “The Ink Blot” at Medscape/WebMD to read my survival guide for interns.

Click Here to View the Original Post on Medscape

• I’m O.K., You’re a Psychopath – NYTimes.com
  (tags: interesting)

Just got home from a 14-hour day on call at the hospital. It’s Saturday night. I have to go in to work again tomorrow at 7 a.m. Am waaaaaaaaaaaay too tired to write anything exciting.

One thing I found interesting from today is sign out. As I was on call, the day folks all signed out to me and then tonight, I signed out everything to the night float team. I am reminded of the game “telephone” where one person says something to another person and then they say that to the next person, and so on….and by the end of the line the original blurb is incomprehensibly changed.

Same thing can happen with sign outs.

Lesson learned from today. Making your patients laugh is one of the most important therapies that exist. Seriously.

It’s leftover sushi time. Buenas noches!!!

Photo: Taken on my walk to the hospital today.

Part of My “Trash Talkin” Photo Series

It’s official. I have only 2-weeks of my intern year left. Starting July 1st, I will be a “PGY-2″ (fancy term meaning I’m in the second year of my residency).

I also have my official schedule, so I thought I would share it with the world (and especially my friends/family, since they keep asking!)

Here t’is:

July – Geriatric Psychiatry
August – State Psychiatric Hospital
September – Child Psychiatry
October – Child Psychiatry
November – Research
December – VA Hospital
January – Consult Liaison Psychiatry
February – Consult Liaison Psychiatry
March – Inpatient Psychiatry
April – Inpatient Psychiatry
May – Forensic Psychiatry
June – Emergency Psychiatry

Since I will be rotating at a bunch of new hospitals soon, I have had to fill out one BILLION (I am not exaggerating) forms. In fact, I still have a bunch more to complete by tomorrow, so this is me signing off.

Love,
Soon to Not be an Intern Anymore Kendra

Photo: A discarded dresser with an awesome sticker.

Part of My “Trash Talkin” Photo Series

Please check out my latest post on “The Ink Blot” at Medscape/WebMD. Okay, so I cheated. The post is almost a duplicate from my last post on my blog. Feel free to not read it if you read the prior one. I’m not supposed to “cross blog,” so technically I didn’t. I’m tired. Forgive me.

Click Here to View the Original Post on Medscape

“In the period where I had to live the life of a citizen – a life where, like everybody else, I did tons of laundry and cleaned toilet bowls, changed hundreds of diapers and nursed children – I learned a lot.”

- Patti Smith

I had a fairly crappy (pun intended) day today. I’m stressed, frustrated and ambivalent.

I just got home from a fairly long day at the hospital. But sometimes I feel a lot better when I rant “out loud.” So please excuse me while I verbally relieve myself right now (pun also intended).

It really sucks when:

1. You have a thousand patients who need to be discharged and you work your fingers to nubs trying to get them discharged all day long and by the end of the day no one has left.

2. You can’t just write an order and expect that it will get done.

3. You have to spend an hour on the phone with an insurance rep explaining why they need to pay for a nursing home for your patient.

4. You get told by a social worker that you don’t care enough about your patients or try to understand the big picture and that you must have never worked outside of medicine. Seriously?!!!!! Are you kidding me???!!! ME?!!! If they only knew…..

5. Someone accidentally cancels a very important order that you have written TWICE.

6. You get yelled at by a fellow (specialist) for something that is 100% not your fault.

7. You have to discharge a patient home when they really need a nursing home.

8. Families have no interest in their loved ones in the hospital.

9. You can’t get a procedure for a patient because they have a contraindication for it but the contraindication is the reason they need the procedure in the first place.

10. There is a line for the bathroom and you really, really, really need to go.

That is all. I feel better.

Photo: Taken on my walk home from the hospital today.

Part of My “Trash Talkin” Photo Series

“Many is a word that only leaves you guessin’,
Guessin’ ’bout a thing you really ought to know.
You really ought to know.
I really ought to know.”

- Led Zeppelin, “Over the Hills and Far Away”

Just got home from being on call all day long in medicine. Saw a lot. Did a lot. Some stuff learned/observed:

1. It’s somewhat ironic that I still have a bad cough and keep admitting patients with HIV, rule out tuberculosis.

2. Sometimes being a good doctor means recognizing important signs/symptoms. Sometimes it means coming up with a good treatment plan. Sometimes it means stealing sandwiches from the refrigerator for them.

3. A good medical student is an intern’s best friend.

4. Sometimes humor is seriously the best medicine.

5. Antimicrobacterial hand gel really hurts when you have a papercut on your hand.

6. Never believe everything a patient says. Never dismiss anything a patient says.

7. Caffeine is an intern’s best friend.

8. Psychiatric patients are the best, I don’t care what other docs say.

9. When in a pinch, a latex glove on a stethoscope can be a good idea.

10. Patients appreciate when you check in on them more than you need to.

11. Vaseline shouldn’t be so difficult to obtain in a hospital.

It’s dinner, shower, and sleep time!

Photos: Taken on my walk to the hospital today. Discarded sofas make me happy.

Part of My “Trash Talkin” Photo Series

“When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing”

- Rabindranath Tagore

It’s 5:00 p.m. on a Sunday evening. I had to work at the hospital this morning at 7 a.m. but as I had very few patients and since it was my attending’s day off, it ended up being a short day. I was feeling yucky and sick, but instead of doing what sane people do and resting, I went for an amazing 11-mile run.

I’m probably a bit masochistic for doing stuff like this, but as the very cheesy saying goes, “no pain, no gain.” For me, it’s kind of more like the above quote, “no wounds, no healing.”

Right now there is reggae music blasting outside of my window. I basically live in what I call “The Little Caribbean,” meaning that my neighborhood is predominantly Caribbean folks, so loud reggae music is what I’m used to. It actually reminds me a lot of living in Dominica, which makes me smile…

That is all for now. Enjoy the photos with this post…1) Taken this morning on my walk to the hospital. 2) Taken this afternoon on my run back into Brooklyn.

Part of My “Trash Talkin” Photo Series

Part of My “Yo Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboudit” Photo Series

“No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.”

- Sigmund Freud, “Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, 1905″

I spent the first half of today at the hospital, scutting around as an intern in medicine, focused on antiretroviral medications, anal cultures and congestive heart failure.

I spent the latter half of my day in psychiatry didactic lectures.

I must admit that the latter half of my day was a bit more fascinating.

We had a monumental lecture today in our “introduction to psychoanalysis” course.

Our professor hit us all with a hefty task. He gave us several minutes to complete the following assignment:

“Take this piece of paper and write a screen play. You have two choices. Either write about the most incredible and fantastic sexual experience that you can imagine or write about the most horrific, terrifying experience that you can imagine.”

He actually used more charged and provocative language, but that is the gist that I could remember. He then said “go” and we all began.

It was incredibly uncomfortable for me to complete this assignment.

He then put all of the papers into an envelope and randomly drew them out and read them in front of the entire class.

We then analyzed all of our stories looking for the psychodynamic, underlying defenses that we each used to deal with our challenging task.

Talk about scary, awesome, provocative, eery, embarrassing, powerful and moving.

You think performing a heart transplant is difficult…try baring your soul to the world!

Psychiatry is awesome.

Nuff said.

Part of My “Trash Talkin” Photo Series