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I quit

No..I would never do that. But I could sure use an interning break!

I wanted to write something great today or feature a yummy creation, but I got nothing except for a tired brain. I wish I could say that my body was tired from training but it is recovery week and I am taking full advantage of just exercising this week. This morning was 30 min on the elliptical and weights. That's it! Tomorrow I plan to swim and hoping to find my inner-nemo that loves to come out twice a week from 6am - 7:30am.

With 9 1/2 hours of interning at the hospital, you'd think that I would be able to see a dozen patients but I spent the entire day seeing 3 patients. Yesterday I saw 4, which is an improvement from my 2/d average but these three patients had me scratching my head and looking up a lot of info. Because I am still in the "interning" phase of my internship, it's important that I take my time and learn as much as I can so I don't overlook medications, physician orders or status updates. I still love talking to patients but trying to compose a note and sum up everything that is going on with a patient is still a work in progress. I am finally getting the "lingo" but every patient is a new case.

Today I saw a bilateral below the knee amputee which required new calculations for calorie, protein and fluids needs. However, the patient had some changes in blood work which forced me to adjust nutrient needs. I never did calculations on an amputee so this was new for me. I also saw a pt who recently had a few toes amputated and had weight changes. The patient needed a diet change, was on fluid restriction and had several changes in status which had me wondering what I should prioritize in this case. Lastly, I saw a patient who was taken off TPN feeding after speech evaluated the patient with a modified barium swallow. I had to recalculate the patients needs but there was no new weight to figure out needs per kg of adjusted weight and ideal body weight. Needless to say, I learned a lot today and had a headache by 6pm!
The highlight of my day was giving a cancer patient an educational book on diet suggestions during chemo. Talking to the pt made my day and the pt was very happy to have suggestions to help with vomiting and constipation (two of the many side effects of chemo and chemo meds).

Well, my eyes are sleepy and I am off to dream about what tomorrow will bring....