I have a new pet peeve: people who let their tiny children toddle along in an airport terminal, when they (should) know damn well that people who are late for flights need clear running paths. I discovered this pet peeve tonight, as I sprinted through Hartsfield during my fifteen minute(!!) layover. To say I ran like gangbusters is an understatement. Going from gate B5 to gate D36 wasn't easy to begin with. Having to hurdle a dozen snot-nosed ear tuggers* didn't make it any easier.

Looking on the bright side, I know that my cardiovascular fitness is improving because toward the end of said sprint, I still had the wind to rudely say to one parent, "Seriously, pick her up!! People have flights to catch!!" Yep, that's right. I am THAT person. But whatever. As a possible future pediatrician, I was just being an advocate for the toddler, so she wouldn't get stepped on. But sometimes I think that having a kid must knock out the "I should be considerate of other people" gene.

Anyway, I just barely made my connection: they had to unlock all the boarding doors and what have you. And as I sat on the plane, I realized that karma was paying me back for being rude:

1) even though I got a seat assignment, that apparently goes away when you're late. So I got an aisle seat and the privilege of having people's butts in my face.
2) Soon after sitting down, still panting, I developed sharp back pain that made me pretty sure my aorta was dissecting.
3) I also developed a cough that just would not go away.
4) I also developed a pretty spectacular nosebleed.

This was all within five minutes!! And worst of all, I had Easy Lover by Phil Collins stuck in my head for the whole flight. Not the whole song. Just the "You're not the only one, seeing is believing" line. For the whole flight.

Whew. That's enough ranting and whining for now. I made it home safely. I hung out with my parents briefly, and now everybody's heading to bed. Goodnight, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

*I think 'ear tuggers' is an appropriate synonym for 'young children'.

Well, my pediatrics rotation is over. Took the shelf exam on Friday. This was the actual nationally standardized shelf exam, not 30 random 'show me how you think' questions written by the clerkship director. I must say, I like the former much more than the latter. I just tend to do better with multiple choice. I felt like the exam was very 'buzzword' oriented: Koplik spots = measles, 3 Hz spike-and-wave = absence seizures... stuff like that. I read Blueprints, did all the PreTest questions, and only skimmed through CaseFiles the day before. I think it worked out well.

Now I'm in OB-GYN orientation. I'd better pay attention.

I am on peds call for the last time. So far it's pretty booooooring. I am actually okay with that, since I've got my handy dandy Pretest Peds to keep me company. I need to do as many questions as I can before the shelf exam on Friday. That's right, Friday. It feels like the rotation just started! I'm trying to decide if pediatrics is actually where I want to be and I hardly get any time to experience it. I think I partly believed that I would have this lightning strike moment in which I realized that peds is my One True Love. That hasn't happened yet.

I was totally lame this Halloween, and had no costume. Actually, I take that back. I dressed up as "post-call." That involves looking slightly disheveled and tired, and carrying around a thicker-than-usual stack of H&Ps.

They take Halloween pretty seriously at the children's hospital. One of my upper level residents had a pretty spectacular pirate costume. The residents from the acute care clinic (the service I was on before) all dressed up as insects. There was a ladybug, a bee, a fire ant, several butterflies, and a caterpillar. One of the residents came as a can of Off!, still fitting in with the theme. He totally cut the arms in his costume improperly, so when he sat down he had to hold his arms out to the side. The best part is that he didn't take the costume off. He just sat that way for all of Morning Report! I'd bet my life that nothing like that was happening over at Internal Medicine Morning Report.

The twelve students who are doing inpatient peds right now had a meeting with the Department Chair today. He's really nice, and his talking about being advocates and making a difference in the life of children made my inner pendulum swing a little more toward pediatrics. And during our meeting, the Peds residency director and two chief residents totally burst in, dumped candy on the table, and left. Again, that Just Doesn't Happen™ over on the Medicine side. Too bad I can't choose a life path based solely on the degree to which Halloween is celebrated. Well, I could, but that probably wouldn't be a great idea.

So anyway. I was on call last night. Picked up three new patients. Seizures, atypical pneumonia, post-LP headache, bing bang boom. I was still home by 10pm. (So it really doesn't make sense that I looked haggard this morning. I got plenty of sleep.) I must say, writing the history and physical for a new patient goes a lot faster when you don't have to write a book report. I churned those suckers out like whoa*.

*Random aside: Recently I've found myself feeling the urge to use the phrase "like gangbusters" at various junctures. Describing the way I churned out H&Ps was one such occasion. I don't know where this came from or why it's happening. Readers, do you think this is a phrase I should adopt? Would I even be using it the right way? Maybe I should just resist this urge... like gangbusters.**

**Okay I know for sure I didn't use it right just then.

My shelf exam is one week from today. I need to study like... you know.

I don't like that I only get two and a half weeks on inpatient peds. Why so short? Because there are only three teams that third years can be on. I guess the structure of the program works for the hospital and the housestaff but it kinds sucks for us. Why these massive four-intern teams can't be split into 1- or 2-intern teams is beyond me. Although I guess that would still leave logistical problems with the rotation only being five weeks.

I don't like table rounds. I thought bedside rounding on 20+ patients was bad. Rounding on 20+ patients without ever leaving my chair is worse. Yesterday, between morning report, rounds, note writing and noon lecture I was on my ass for the greater part of the day. Not fun.

Hello world. It's been a while since I last posted. I'm still on my peds rotation. Tuesday was my last day of outpatient. I saw a ton of kids, which means I learned a lot. However, you can only see so many cases of the sniffles before the sense of wonder disappears. The clinic I was in saw between 70 and 90 patients every day. I'd say that colds, ear infections and rashes comprised 90% of visits. On my last day, I literally had to pause, gather my wits about me, and summon the strength to go in and take one more "tugging at ear" history. And because we had so many different attendings, I had to have the acute otitis media teaching session several times.

I did get to see some cool stuff. Like corneal abrasions, hand foot mouth disease, and other stuff that I'm blanking on. Plus, there were some really cute kids. Other than the new babies, I liked the three year olds the best.

Now I'm on day three of inpatient peds. I am on Team B, which has the GI and neuro services. I don't know why those two are paired, but I I'm enjoying it so far. You should have seen me trying to preround yesterday after 6 weeks off. It was a mess. This morning was much better. More details later.

Thanks for all the well wishes for my dad. I stayed in Baton Rouge until Saturday. When I left, Dad was able to walk a little with the help of a walker. In the grand scheme of strokes he was actually pretty lucky. I'm glad that I took time off and went home, because I needed to see that for myself. Otherwise I would just think that I was being shielded from the truth, like during previous family illnesses.

So. I missed three days of outpatient peds. It's only a two and a half-week block so that's not insignificant. The worst thing is that I missed that much face time with the attendings. It's bad that our time in clinic is almost over and most of them are still iffy on who I am. Other than that, I'm not too sorry about missing the lectures or eight bajillion cases of the sniffles.