Life of an Intern

It's tough when you're just starting out.

I'm roughly nine months in my intern year, and it never gets any easier. Just when you think you know something, you find out you really didn't know as much as you should have. And when you're on-call, you better eat when you can.

New Orleans in the post-Katrina world is different to be sure, but no more so after midnight...for all intents and purposes, the city shuts down, not so much because it's too dangerous, but because there aren't enough people to work all of the gas stations, Denny's and Super-Walmarts. It also doesn't help when the cafeteria in the hospital shuts down after 2pm.

After my upper level resident and I spent roughly 9 straight hours in the ER admitting patients, we look up and it's half-past 12am. We're absolutely starving at this point, but we still have two more patients to admit. "Dude, we gotta eat," my resident mumbles with his lids half closed. "I'll go run out and find something...don't give me money yet since I may not find anything open," I said.

So I leave the hospital and my biggest worry comes true...there ain't a damn place open in the Kenner-Metairie area. The only places open is an On The Run gas station, and the only thing remotely hot to eat are some frozen chili dogs. I pass.

I head back to the hospital and it's now half-past 1am. The only option now is to get some hot-pockets out of the vending machine in the cafeteria. We get there and the change machine is broken and none of us has any change or dollar bills. We head back to ER hunting for some ones, and we find a guy who graciously gives us $3.62 in exchange for a five...we feel it's a bargain.

So we trudge back to the cafeteria and throw a couple hot pockets in the microwave, which by the way doesn't have the revolving glass plate. We sit down and talk, mainly about which residents have left LSU already, who will leave, and whether or not we're staying. My resident says how this whole ordeal is placing a great strain on his marriage, compounded by a newborn and the possibility of internal medicine residents having to spend months in Houma, LA on rotations. Generally speaking, it's not the happiest of conversations, but we were happy to refuel and sit down in relative peace and quiet.

It's now around 3AM and we've still got two patients to see. We divide and conquer with the goal of getting two hours of sleep tonight. After all is said and done, we finish at around 5AM and manage a little over an hour of sleep...well, he got an hour, I got about half-an-hour as I listen to him snore in the next bed.

We get back up at around 6:30 and begin morning rounds; my toothbrush is still in my car since I didn't have time in the afternoon to put my call bag in the call room. I manage with my index finger to freshen my breath with some toothpaste. I absolutely reek at this point, by the way, I've got severe bed-hair and my coat feels like an anchor around my shoulders.

We finish seeing our patients and hit morning lecture, after which the ham and cheese hot pocket I ate at 2AM is just now getting it's revenge on me. Not a pretty site.

My staff rounds us up and we start seeing patients. On the whole, we did okay with our management decisions; unfortunately one my patients, as I suspected the day before, ended up with a diagnosis of cancer and pneumonia. With our workload, we don't leave the hospital until after 3:30PM; we're absolutely spent and utterly useless at this point. Actually, this is a good thing since we're too tired to worry about the future and too sleepy to remember the night before.

I get to bed around 8PM and sleep straight through till 6AM the next day. I've got another three days off before I get back on call...I better pack an MRE now.