Everyone said, "Pediatric Surgery is so busy! Once you get past that it'll be smooth sailing." Yes, it was very busy. I worked long hours. I was exhausted. I felt like I would fall asleep while walking around and definitely any time we sat down, in the dark, after lunch, for conferences talking about bowel stuff I didn't understand. Despite the fact I was sitting next to the faculty who was talking and across from the one who was asking the questions. Couldn't be helped. I tried. I tried really hard. But I enjoyed it. Some of the kids were so cute. The team was nice. And the month went fast.

Now to Aug 1. "You'll probably really like the VA. It will be a nice break and you'll get to do a lot."

Well, so far I'm not convinced. At least about the nice break part. And the getting to do a lot part, I thought meant doing surgery. So far I am doing A LOT. The senior residents keep saying that we have more patients than they ever remember having. We also have combined two teams instead of one. And instead of having two interns and a midlevel resident to help with the floor work, we have ME. The first few days have been me running around crazy and frazzled without a free minute until at least late afternoon. I literally can get three pages in 10 seconds on multiple pagers. I have felt like everyone wants a piece of me. The transplant team wanting me to admit a patient; the nurse stating I still haven't signed the orders yet; a new consult and his family is mad he hasn't been seen yet; Erin could you please go see a clinic patient; the next surgery patient needs to be marked; can you please do a thorough history and physical (including a rectal exam?) and so on all morning. Thank goodness I have a team of medical students who can write notes and help with some of the work but even then I can hardly keep up.

The situation isn't so bad. A few perks: free cafeteria food. Which is actually awful as far as food good goes but at least it is there when I have zero time to find real food. Working with the vets who deserve so much after their service. A nice team.

I have Wednesday's off. Tomorrow I switch to the night shift. It probably wont be so crazy busy. We'll see how it goes. Only 27 days left.

Oh, and about rectal exams: not as bad as I anticipated. Good thing I got really used to poop on my last rotation. I told my resident (when she asked) that although I had never done one before I would go for it. One of the students asked (I thought with a tone), "Didn't you ever practice though?" No, surprisingly, we didn't learn that in dental school. And it isn't a routine part of my exam. And if it was, I would probably lose my license. Or be arrested.