3. Meet Doreen

March 30, 2022 Meet Doreen. She is the wife of Dave the Travel Pig. Doreen was gifted to me in 2010 by my coworker and good friend Lori. Fast forward to 2022 and Doreen is now my personal breast cancer mascot. We are headed to the hospital tonight for surgery tomorrow – mine, not hers! […]

Surgery: Code White, Part 2

January 6, 1999 Wednesday As I mentioned in part 1, the Departments of Surgery, Orthopedics and Anesthesia were on Code White last December 31-January 1. All residents and interns in these departments were on duty, no exceptions. Roll calls were done every 8 hours to check if we were still around (and still alive). Actually, […]

Surgery: Trauma Team, and Code White, Part 1

January 5, 1999 Wednesday Hello all and happy 1999! This is quite a belated greeting as I spent New Year’s Eve on duty and New Year’s Day trying to get enough ZZZZs to pay my sleep debt. But I’m getting ahead of my story. For the week of December 25 to 31, I was with […]

Finally Out of Surgery Wards

December 26, 1998 Saturday Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! I had my last duty as a Surgery ward intern on Christmas Eve. No more PACU monitoring, at least for now! (PACU – post-anesthesia care unit; monitoring – checking vital signs). The best times of the past rotation at the surgery wards was when I got pulled out of duty to go Christmas caroling… wait a […]

Surgery: Emergency Room and Outpatient Department

November 28, 1998 Saturday This is the journal for the first two weeks of Surgery. Surgery is gory and bloody and everything you’ve imagined – the most prevalent color here is blood-red. The Surgery-ER/OPD (Emergency Room/Outpatient Department) rotation consists of the first 2 weeks of Surgery (8 weeks). Interns are on duty at the ER […]