I went away for a while to try to get more organized at home and refocused. I'm writing again now and hope to make it a more regular event as time allows!
We are now at the end of October and 4.5 weeks into the required 12 weeks of internal medicine. We are surviving! We were warned that internal medicine and surgery rotations are the longest and involve a taxing schedule. What we weren't told about is how to plan when to do these rotations. We happened to pick internal medicine over the holidays. WRONG CHOICE! When you are on an inpatient rotation you are not guaranteed holidays off, but if you are on an outpatient rotation you do get those days off because most clinics are closed then. (Keep that in mind if you aren't to year 3 or 4 yet in school!) Lesson learned: do those rotations in the months that don't have the big holidays.
Mark's schedule this month is call every fourth day. This means he goes in around 6am (give or take an hour) and stays until midnight. He has to stay longer to finish any admit that walks in the door up to 11:59pm. He gets home after that and then turns right around and goes back around 6am again. That's right people. No post call day! In fact they only get a few days off the entire month. They round every morning including weekends. If one of their 3 days off during the month happens to have a class that day, they are still required to attend class.
What I am learning as a wife this rotation is to be an encourager. These are long hours and some cases are sad and do not have a pleasant prognosis. During this time our men need sleep, food, and to be able to just relax when at home. Encourage them!
