Day 5

Already I am perfecting the art of waking,dressing, and leaving in less than 20 minutes. Nothing like 8 weeks of 4 am mornings to bring out the minimalist in all of us.
It is day 5 and I am sorry to say that I haven't seen the inside of an OR yet. There are several reasons; I'm on a specialty service, so there are never more than 1 or 2 surgeries per day and there are 4 students on my team. We follow our designated patients into the OR and it just so happens that my patient had the audacity to leave AMA (against medical advice) yesterday. He had a angiogram and it scared him quite a bit I think. An angiogram is a bit of an invasive procedure that allows dye-mapping of one's vessels in order to detect blockages, stenois, etc. With no OR time I am left with sundry inpatient matters. You see, and I didn't realize before this year, that inpatient doctors spend 10% of their days with the patient and the other 90% doing paperwork and giving orders. Attending doctors spend even less time with patients. I'm uncertain as to their schedule apart from our morning and evening rounds.