Disconnected

I've been in Brewster, WA for one week doing ER. Here is a summary:

Sunday night - got in late. My roomie is one of the RT's at the hospital. She lives in a modest 3br 1 ba house and letting me stay with her for a very reasonable rate. But there is no bed, so Cindy was kind enough to lend me her air mattress. I'm getting used to it. There is also no TV or internet. That, I cannot get used to.

The roommate is shy but nice. She has a sweet old dog named patches (a dalmation) and a parakeet named Fred, who is allowed to fly freely around the house. He is a social animal and likes to fly directly at your face and land on your head. It was cute at first....

Day 1: Er from 8am - 8pm with Jose, my main preceptor. He is a little intense and gave me a one-hour long "expectations" lecture, but I think I made an ok impression and we got through the day quite well. The ER can be quite slow seeing as it is a very rural place, so there wasn't too much excitement.

Day 2: Went in at 8am, trained with Chris - a Pacific PA grad. He was doing outpatient internal med AND the ER...(it's that slow). Did mostly outpatient stuff during the day, then the ER picked up around 7pm. The night doc came in at 8pm and immediately started pimping me on renal artery stenosis and the renin-angiotensin system....I was 12 hours into the shift and failed my pimping miserably, but he was forgiving. I decided to stay just a few extra hours....which turned into all night...so I worked my first 24. I did manage to get an hour of sleep in the chapel (thank God ;) )

Day 3: slept.

Day 4: Went to Omak to get a pillow and some more groceries. There is a Walmart there...ah, civilization!!

Day 5: Was hooked up with surgery for a day. From 6am - 8:30pm (save for a 20 minute lunch) I was in on ortho surgeries (1 surgeon, two rooms going...done with one surgery and would walk right into the next). It was pretty bad ass for the first few hours, but then my feet and back started hurting and I remembered why I don't like surgery. I did, however, get some seriously fantastic suturing hints and practice, and got to help prepare an ACL graft from a cadaver. Very very cool. Still don't like surgery.

Day 6: drove to Seattle, saw my mom and best friend

Day 7: today - seeing my dad, have to leave any minute to go back, and I'm so homesick. It sucks to be so disconnected (no internet) from everyone, but I will just have to keep busy working.

I miss you all and can't wait to reconnect at PPS II. So happy that I already did my journal club thing and presentation though - I fully intend on zoning out the whole time.

Jen