I started my radiology rotation this week. I'm glad that I'm doing this rotation this early in the program. I spent about a month doing clinic with two ortho PAs and we've been looking at X-rays, MRI's and CT scans often. I'm OK with reading X-rays but those MRI's and CT Scans, they're all just black and white to me with a little bit of gray in certain places. I'm starting to realize how important it is to know the human anatomy because when they're on radiographs, they're just black and white if you don't know what you're looking at.
As far as feeling stupid, it hit me yesterday the hardest so far in the program. This is good though. It means that I need to push myself a little bit more. There are a lot of smart people in the Army and it feels like they're all in the hospital I'm doing my training at right now.
As far as my hours, yes, I'm still waking up at O dark hundred... about 0300 hours, do 30 minutes of snoozercise (you know, when the alarm goes off and you snooze it and go back to bed and it goes off again after 9 minutes, then do that over and over again), then around 0330 hours I do PT, upper body focus on M/W/F and lower body on Tue/Thu. Then do personal hygiene, drive to work, and park near the hospital (I would have to park further and ride the bus if I don't get there by 0500 hours). I go to my cubicle, check e-mail, do a little bit of research for my protocols on antibiotic beads, female athlete triad, smoking and stress fractures. I also do a little bit of admin because the Army is not the Army without all the required/mandatory training we have to do. Worse is that Joint Commission is coming to town and we have to watch our "p's and q's". Then around 0600 hours, I go to the DFAC (dining facility) to get a cup of coffee. Usually I go back upstairs for the 0630 morning report but now that I'm in my radiology rotation, I usually hang out at the library then either go to a morning radiology lecture or go to the dark "Bone" room where the radiographs are read by the radiologists. Then around 1630 hours (4pm), I drive home to take a 30 minute nap, then go back out to pick up the kids. Sometimes I cook and pack meals for me and the kids and we go to the local park right after I get them so I can wear them out. Then around 1900 hours (7pm), I put them in the bath and get them ready for bed but they tend to want to stay up with their papa. I study aroung 8pm then try to go to bed between 9 and 10 pm and do it all over again. All this and I haven't even started night and evening call yet... or even pulling call... that fun begins in January.
I asked the physician/radiologist today on why he went into radiology rather than all the other specialties. I always wondered this because before coming to this rotation, I would always pass by those radiology rooms and they're always dark and wonder why the radiologist like hanging out doing their work in those dark rooms. He said it interested him back when he was a third year med student. He said he was always a techy and he had a short attention span and did not want to have to follow up the patients. "Once I read the screen for that patient, I'm done." He's a great teacher but I can tell that he's done this for a long time. He scrolls through using that mouse so fast, I can't keep up. I have to periodically stop him to ask my stupid questions... especially those questions where I think there's an abnormality when it's just a normal finding. The first day I was there, it was after lunch and I was getting sleepy. He got up to tell me he'll be right back. He came back saying he had to get something to drink so that he wouldn't fall asleep. Haha!
There are other residents and radiologists in there too and they're pretty smart. They BS in between reading the radiographs. They also have to use these dictaphones so there are like 4 or 5 people talking all at the same time and it takes getting used to in focusing on a topic they're talking about because they're all different based on who you're listening to.
Yesterday one of the residents was talking about "psychometricians". He said the Army is hiring them so that they can tell who's guessing or who knows the answers based on their performance on the test. He said there could be someone who could get the answers right most of the time adn still fail or only get some questions right and still pass depending on which questions they answered right. Interesting.
Well, I'm glad I'm finally updating my blog because I have so much to document. I read my last post and I felt like deleting it because I was so negative that other people really don't care about what I write. I decided not to delete it because that is what I was feeling at the time. Now, I fell like telling everyone what I've been up to because I'm having such a great time.
