Reflections on the First Week

It is a national holiday today so the lab is closed and I am off. My first week was pretty short--only 3 days--and I am pretty grateful for having some time to ease in. I have already realized that pathology residency is going to have a very steep learning curve since it has a whole new base of knowledge to master. Luckily, they expect us to come in pretty green so there is a lot of help from senior residents.

By the end of third year of medical school I had gotten fairly good at being organized on the wards. This week I found that some of the organization systems I had used then have no use in the clinical lab. The standard "to do" lists with their little check boxes will still be helpful for making sure I do not forget certain tasks that will always need to get done during the day. But most of what I need to do depends on what kind of calls I get from clinicians, how many "critical" lab values come back and need follow-up, and other random issues that come up. It definitely lacks the structure of a day on medicine or surgery, or even a day on surgical pathology.

The hospital I am currently at has one of the smallest and saddest cafeterias I have seen. But, the food is free for residents, so I have been eating my free lunch everyday. Since not much is gluten-free, I have an iceberg lettuce salad with oil and white vinegar (yes, you read that right, cheap white vinegar) dressing, yogurt, pudding, and bottled water for lunch. Apparently, I have a food allowance for breakfast and dinner too, but I am not sure I can take eating there more than one meal/day. It is free and I am grateful for that, but there is only so much iceberg lettuce one can eat and I will be there for 2 months. One resident suggested I stop by daily on my way out and stock up on bottled water and chips to last the rest of the year when I am at other hospitals. I just might have to start doing that next week.