Its been awhile....
I haven't had much time to post the past two months. Life at the hospital flows much faster than I'm able to dictate. I end up floating in the raging river we call healthcare hoping that my little course corrections here and there will be enough. Here's a summary of what's been happening in my recent life... more specific blogs to come:
The Hospitals
Really the last two months at the hospital has dominated my life. For those who don't know, I'm a surgery resident in the East Bay area. My first month was at Highland Hospital - the county/city hospital for the Oakland metro and surrounding area. This is where all the city/county's indigent population goes for regular medical/surgical care and where most of the trauma patients come within the vicinity. The trauma care here is one of the best in the nation - as we see so much of it. On trauma call nights, I'm the primary physician in charge of the care of every trauma patient that comes through the door - from the drunk that fell down and hit his head to the blood that got shot in the heart to the elderly woman who got t-boned at 65mph. Its busy, its hectic, its "ER" like (if you've ever seen it) and it requires more than half hearted attempts at charity - it requires skill, timing, heroism, and, more than all of that - heart. The other half of work there revolves around taking care of the people who have no insurance. Its heartbreaking to see so many people who are left without insurance in our society - especially the immigrants who mirror my family so much. That's why I love this hospital more than anything. What we do there defines altruism in the face of mounting difficulties and public inattention.
The second hospital is Kaiser Oakland. Its a private hospital, so the patients are more normal. That said, I like it less - mainly because so much of the care there revolves around customer service rather than actual patient care. We operate a lot there. And I certainly have learned a lot working there, but it just doesn't feel as fulfilling as "The County" as we put it.
Suffice it to say, after two months, I've learned why I love surgery so. In what other field can you have another human being trust you so much to have you cut them open and care for them afterwards? In what other field do you have to have not only the want, but the ability to make life or death decisions in seconds - without all of the data yet available to you? In what other field can you actually say that you can "crack a chest open, cut open a patient's heart, put a stitch in it, squeeze it, and bring a patient back to life... all in 30 seconds?" No other field I know - and that's why I love what I do.
My Audi
Uh, not much to say here other than it underwent a catastrophic shutdown right when I needed to get to the hospital. Long story short, I was on the way to work early Sunday AM when my engine started running rough - barely able to get to speed. I got nearly to the hopsital when the clutch pedal stopped working. Needing to be at the hospital (there's no such thing as taking a day off unless I'm dead or dying), I had to somehow get it there. I coaxed the car into the hospital parking lot but with a lot of difficulty and damage from teh clutch.
The next morning, I called a towing company to tow my car to the Audi dealership. First of all, I wanted to tow to my dealership - who I've trusted.. until now. I did but it took a whole day given that the tow truck driver had tos top to bayview first to do something. Over the next 3 weeks my car was held hostage as the horrific service by Carlsen Audi in Palo Alto was instituted. First, they took 2 days to figure out what I already knew when it went down - the coilpack was dead. Second, they claimed that the clutch burned because of my fault - forgetting that the clutch burned because the coilpack died causing my clutch to work harder than it normally would to get me to the hospital. Third, they never got my car back in teh timely manner I wished for. It took them a full week after the initial promise date to actually deliver my car.
It was one of the worst handled services I've ever seen. It killed me.. and my poor car. It inconveninced my work schedule - which means that I have to take time from taking care of patients to take care of this dumb issue because the dealership couldn't.
Enough ranting about that though...
Hawaii
Somehow I got allocated my one month vacation 2 months after I've been on research - which is much less work than being at the hospital working up to 100 hours a week.
So we went to Hawaii, and I'm in love. More to come on my next few blogs... I just have to catch up. If I ended up here in Maui the rest of my life - I'd have no worries at all, except how to make ends meet to live here.
That's all for now... I'll be blogging more and more shortly in the future.
The Hospitals
Really the last two months at the hospital has dominated my life. For those who don't know, I'm a surgery resident in the East Bay area. My first month was at Highland Hospital - the county/city hospital for the Oakland metro and surrounding area. This is where all the city/county's indigent population goes for regular medical/surgical care and where most of the trauma patients come within the vicinity. The trauma care here is one of the best in the nation - as we see so much of it. On trauma call nights, I'm the primary physician in charge of the care of every trauma patient that comes through the door - from the drunk that fell down and hit his head to the blood that got shot in the heart to the elderly woman who got t-boned at 65mph. Its busy, its hectic, its "ER" like (if you've ever seen it) and it requires more than half hearted attempts at charity - it requires skill, timing, heroism, and, more than all of that - heart. The other half of work there revolves around taking care of the people who have no insurance. Its heartbreaking to see so many people who are left without insurance in our society - especially the immigrants who mirror my family so much. That's why I love this hospital more than anything. What we do there defines altruism in the face of mounting difficulties and public inattention.
The second hospital is Kaiser Oakland. Its a private hospital, so the patients are more normal. That said, I like it less - mainly because so much of the care there revolves around customer service rather than actual patient care. We operate a lot there. And I certainly have learned a lot working there, but it just doesn't feel as fulfilling as "The County" as we put it.
Suffice it to say, after two months, I've learned why I love surgery so. In what other field can you have another human being trust you so much to have you cut them open and care for them afterwards? In what other field do you have to have not only the want, but the ability to make life or death decisions in seconds - without all of the data yet available to you? In what other field can you actually say that you can "crack a chest open, cut open a patient's heart, put a stitch in it, squeeze it, and bring a patient back to life... all in 30 seconds?" No other field I know - and that's why I love what I do.
My Audi
Uh, not much to say here other than it underwent a catastrophic shutdown right when I needed to get to the hospital. Long story short, I was on the way to work early Sunday AM when my engine started running rough - barely able to get to speed. I got nearly to the hopsital when the clutch pedal stopped working. Needing to be at the hospital (there's no such thing as taking a day off unless I'm dead or dying), I had to somehow get it there. I coaxed the car into the hospital parking lot but with a lot of difficulty and damage from teh clutch.
The next morning, I called a towing company to tow my car to the Audi dealership. First of all, I wanted to tow to my dealership - who I've trusted.. until now. I did but it took a whole day given that the tow truck driver had tos top to bayview first to do something. Over the next 3 weeks my car was held hostage as the horrific service by Carlsen Audi in Palo Alto was instituted. First, they took 2 days to figure out what I already knew when it went down - the coilpack was dead. Second, they claimed that the clutch burned because of my fault - forgetting that the clutch burned because the coilpack died causing my clutch to work harder than it normally would to get me to the hospital. Third, they never got my car back in teh timely manner I wished for. It took them a full week after the initial promise date to actually deliver my car.
It was one of the worst handled services I've ever seen. It killed me.. and my poor car. It inconveninced my work schedule - which means that I have to take time from taking care of patients to take care of this dumb issue because the dealership couldn't.
Enough ranting about that though...
Hawaii
Somehow I got allocated my one month vacation 2 months after I've been on research - which is much less work than being at the hospital working up to 100 hours a week.
So we went to Hawaii, and I'm in love. More to come on my next few blogs... I just have to catch up. If I ended up here in Maui the rest of my life - I'd have no worries at all, except how to make ends meet to live here.
That's all for now... I'll be blogging more and more shortly in the future.
posted by Richard at 8:59 PM
1 Comments:
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