My first day as a pediatrician

It's 11 pm EST, and I'm on call at Grady Memorial Hospital for the first time of my life as a real pediatrician. Well at least, that's what I'm supposed to be, but in many ways, I definitely still feel like a medical student. I've been paged and called about a lot of minor issues already, and I usually tell 'em, "I'll call back and let you know." I then ask my upper level (who is really awesome by the way!) and then call the page back.

Earlier I had my first beep of the delivery pager... that was pretty exciting. Peds got called for a baby being delivered by a mother with intrapartum fever, which increases the risk of sepsis and infection in the baby. We were all ready for the worst, but the baby looked fantastic. The best part was seeing the father's face after we completed our exam - he had the biggest smile for us as the pediatricians after we put the baby in his arms. I was definitely really excited to be on "our side" rather than the OB-Gyn's side - I know that everyone has their preference, but that was definitely mine. Later on in the evening, I got to tell a hispanic family (in spanish! go me!) that their baby's bilirubin was good enough so that the baby could go home. That was fun too. Of course, right now, everything is a bit exciting for me as a first-day fresh intern. I wonder how long it will take for me to get jaded, if I will get jaded...

One irritating thing about today!! We were getting oriented to our service - term nursery which basically involves healthy babies with only minor issues if any issues are present at all. Ohhhh baby.... we rounded till 2:30 and didn't break for lunch. I don't think I've EVER done that as a med student, even when I was on surgery. I always was able to grab a bite to eat, and would often times be told by the attending to get something to eat. I couldn't believe that the first time that I wasn't "allowed" to get lunch was on pediatrics... term nursery, no less where we have to make sure that our patients are feeding and growing! I guess there is a first for everything. Finally, I had my "lunch" at 4:30. I was really happy to open my 'lil tupperware container (dubba as we say in Kannada) because I spent a couple of hours yesterday evening making massive amounts of sambar and cauliflower, potato, and peas vegetable. It was yummy.

Another thing, and this is super important! I never believed in jinxing myself till today. I think of myself as a non-gunner, good lil resident. Don't know how the following words came out of my mouth, but it was around 6 pm, and my delivery pager had only gone off once and there were already 10 babies born the whole day according to the database online. I began to worry like an intern on her first day should, that somehow my pager wasn't working and I was supposed to be at deliveries I didn't know about. My upper level was in the room, and I expressed my thoughts out loud, being the dumbass intern I guess I'm supposed to be on my first day.

My upper level said, "Don't jinx us!!!"

What happened next? You guessed it! Not 60 seconds elapsed before my delivery pager went off.

"See! You jinxed us!" shouted my upperlevel.

I felt like such an idiot, like I guess I'm supposed to be on my first day of internship.

We ran to the delivery and while getting the equipment ready for the baby at the bedside, the delivery pager went off AGAIN.

"See! You jinxed us!" shouted my upper level. I felt like more of an idiot. I am now a FULL true blue believer in what every one has ALWAYS said about talking about quietness when it's perfectly quiet. Why ruin a good thing?

I usually have a theme, a thread, if you will, when I write these blog entries. I guess I don't have anything super creative to add today, but I'm hoping the drama of my first day carries this entry through. For all my former classmates reading this, I miss you guys a lot and I definitely think about how y'all are doing. I have another 12 hours to go on my first night of call, and I'm making it better than I thought I would... of course the night is still young... But, if I can do it, I'm positive that any of my classmates are pulling through with flying colors. Today was my first day introducing myself as "Dr. Rao", which is CRAZY when I hear it coming out of my mouth. I hope I haven't let anyone down.

One last thing... I promise. I realize that I love medicine. I have been doing NOTHING for the past several months, and today I've been busy all day pretty much till now. And I'm having a great time seeing, examining babies, even making sure labs are ok, and following up on issues. I do feel that this is what I'm meant to do, and that is a great feeling, one that I hope will carry me through the next 3 years.