last day on "vacation"

it's the last month of my surgical rotations. 2 days later, i'm about to move on to General surgery to spend the last 2 surgical weeks. i'm doing Trauma now though, very easy, very laidback. in fact i couldn't come up with any other surgery that's easier than trauma. i mean... yeah major traumatic cases would be exciting and adrenaline rushing, but how on earth were all the major traumatic cases? 90% of the time down in the pit, we're doing cases with something between minor trauma and superduper minor trauma. plus, i'm in charge of the trauma ward, which means i'm the one to take care of those admitted patients. these patients were relatively stable. ok maybe a little too stable. they were not serious enough to get admitted to neurosurgery(awesome!!), thoracic surgery or cardiovascular surgery. on the other hand they were not suitable for being discharged. that's why they ended up here.

being in charge of the floor, i usually started my rounding at 8 (jesus, if i was in neurosurgery i'd have finished the rounding and be in the OR at that time). the attending rounding was usually later. after finishing some got-on-the-way-to-the-hospital breakfast and some discharges, i'm done! i mean done! finished! i basically was able to leave the hospital usually by 10:30, and you know what, that was what i did sometimes too. i stayed in the dorm, sleeping, internet cruising, and went to the hospital only when the nurses called.

so as you can see, the past 2 weeks could be described as a lazy prick's vacation. WTF!! this is so not me!! well however on a second thought, it might not be a bad idea to enjoy the vacation, since i'll be, according to other PGY1s, totally fucked when i'm doing my general surgery rotation. i'll be drown in charts, surgeries and endless on call nights. gosh. and i still have 2 neurosurgical presentations (on a convention held by the Taiwan Neurosurgery Association) to prepare.... i'll be damned alright....

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Role Model

what's gonna happen to this institute? look at the mid. aged attendings. who and what could make us outstanding if the older pioneers who defined the current era of neurosurgery in this country retire in the foreseeable future? It's our responsibility!

Every weekend after our morning rounds, young attendings, or say, "senbais", like to take us trainees, or "juniors", to the ground floor Starbucks for a breakfast together. I like it very much, not because of the breakfast but the occasion per se.

As a youngest trainee in one of the most prestigious neurosurgical programs in the country, I have to admit that not every attending is as good as he seems from the outside, and serving these attendings can be the end of the world if you get lucky enough. For that matter, the young attendings, chief residents and younger residents usually are on the same side. There's a camaraderie among us, more like a fraternity. It's actually very true since there's never been a female trainee who survived this program.

One of a very respectful attending-to-be gave his thought to us today. He's very competitive, outstanding, straight forward and not afraid of confrontations. A genius. You can say he's a naturally born surgeon with an attitude(according to the information i got). man.. that just rocks..!! and I personally admire that profoundly.. (think of Peter Benton)...

just leaving a record of what he thought about this institute and the expectation that he held for himself and us, and hoping that someday i could be a surgeon who earns the respect from others.

Quote of the month

"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." ~ Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr

the saturday night out

Brown Sugar is one of the nice places u go at night. one of the middle-to-high-ended jazz clubs in Taipei. i personally am not a big fan for clubbing, especially when i'm in Taiwan. i don't know. i went clubbing a lot in the States too, but i'm just not that into this stuff if a lot of people around you tend to pretend they're ABCs or a lot of chicks tend to reveal that they're sucking up ABCs asses.

that's why i seldom go clubbing in the city. as i mentioned before, a nice morning run preceding a saliva-stimulating breakfast is far more appealing to me than a groovy clubbing night out preceding a hot crazy sex with a fucking gorgeous chick. wait, i'll take the sex part back since that has never happened to me, and that, from a 28 year-old healthy/horny (but decent!!) straight male's point of view, might be as appealing as a nice breakfast in the morning.

back to Brown Sugar, a friend of mine asked me to join them to the Brown Sugar party, a party of 5 chicks and 3 men (me included). 5 chickes turned out to be 3 in the end, and they're terribly late, which was fine to me though. 2 of them are doing PR(major companies). 1 of them claimed that she grew up in Panama and had the degree in the States, and the other one looked very "trendy" in a "taiwanese way"... if u know what i mean....

they're not bad-looking, but not lookers either. that's not the point. i didn't have any "intention" in the first place after all, but what happened next was just lousy.... the Panama girl had just a glass of whiskey, and she started to get fucked up by the liquor. caressing my buddy (and later on she moved up to me too @@!), shouting, wobbling, and vomiting in the end, she was making a scene there, and a joke on herself. darn it. even i was embarrassed!!

The other PR was more normal, but u just can tell from the conversations that she's extremely brainless. no offending, ok probably a little bit, but it took her almost 10 times trying to recite my profession correctly. i used neurosurgery first, she thought it was neurology, or psychiatry. alright. i started to claim that i was in surgery, which was simple enough, and she still failed to understand.... gosh, was it my problem or hers? does it take a brain to know what brain surgery is? or fair enough, surgery from other professions? you're in the PR bizz for the chirst sake!!

i ended up making an excuse and left that place earlier than my buddies, way too early, i actually stayed there for less than 2 hours. it's probably a good place to go since that supposed-to-be-fun-and-relaxing night turned out to be a disaster so i didn't really have the chance to enjoy it. jeees... next time i'll definitely ask the right chick to go, or i'll just go by myself to prey one. both would be way better than going out with these nutheads who seemed to just come out from the coo coo's nest...

it's been smooth

during the 2 months of rotation in NCU i really learned a lot, not only about dealing with neurosurgically critical patients, but also some dynamics and politics inside the department in terms of doctor-doctor, doctor-nurse, nurse-nurse relationships. 

work wise, last month was easy. too easy. fewer patients, fewer paperwork, more time of my own. but as was pointed out in the Bible, there would be seven years of plenty and prosperty, followed by seven years of famine. for the past few weeks the patient number suddenly rose and i was again drawn in notes, clinical chores(which, u can almost say, belong to green hands like mine), overworking hours and unpredictable clinical situations that jumped out of nowhere when i was still busy pulling out drainage tubes or suturing or extubating or establishing central lines. 

but it's been smooth. as time goes by my clinical skills get mature. good good. i still managed to go to the gym on a q3d basis while jogging and swimming occupying the another 2. next month i'm going back to vascular team. that's something i'm looking forward to, working under Dr. L. there's a price though: duty shifts and unfinished charts that only seem to pile. 

the good thing is i get to scrub in craniotomies woohoo!!! gotta get ready for that. 

goals for next month: 

1. at least get to know what vessel they're doing under the microscope!!

2. to establish an efficient way of charts/notes management. can't really let the paperwork hinder my learning!

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after setting up central lines for days i noticed some freaking delusional thoughts inside my mind. every time i look at people's neck, i swear to god, i can't stop wondering if that would be an easy access to have a neck CVC. jees....i spent half of the time when seeing "sex and the city" thinking what was wrong with me.... shoot~~!!