Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Residency 2.2: Cardiology Clinic

"Are you a hard-hearted person?"
"I'm hard-headed."
"Are you a cold-hearted person?"
"Cold hands, warm heart!"

This was the conversation between one of my attendings and one of my very astute patients during Cardiology Clinic yesterday. I have to say one of my more enjoyable experiences this month was listening to this doctor go through all of the corny "heart" idioms and make the patients and parents laugh. "What's that I hear? Is your heart carrying a tune for someone?"

This month was a blissful call-free, vacation month, so I feel like I hardly worked at all. I got to enjoy my weekends, work out, and even go home for a week. But I also feel like I learned a lot. I got pretty good at listening to heart murmurs, talking to parents about abnormal heart rhythms and passing out, and even started to be able to identify structures on echo. The trick will be if I remember any of this when I do Blue Team in June.

This month I'm on Heme/Onc (blood and cancer disorders) so it will be a lot more taxing, mentally and physically. But I have Day 1 under my belt with no issues (that I know of). Also, I have to say that it's kind of fun to be back inpatient and see everyone again (I missed my Owl Team!). Until next time...

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