intern year

[Flynn]

When DH was on his ER rotation it was 24 on 24 off for 4 months (OMIGOODNESS) and on one of his days off he woke up after four hours of sleep --jumped out of bed -- RAN to the shower -- showered -- got out of the shower, checked the clock, woke me up -- realized he wasn't late for anything -- laid down naked in bed -- told me to "check the chart and administer bla bla bla" then laid down and was asleep in about 30 seconds.

He still has no memory of that to this day. I thought the apartment was on fire or he was hurt. He was such a wacko!!!

[migirl]

DH did a general surgery internship (at the very beginning of the 80-hour rule, I think) and it wasn't so bad. He was able to come home post-call pretty early in the day (sometimes even before noon!), although he was Q3 for most of the year. I agree with whoever said that 2nd year was much tougher. For us that was because he has home call and the hours you're on call at home don't count toward the 80 hours, so the days were much, much longer.

[Amiens]

Crystal -- DH had 2 ICU months at the county hospital in the winter, one with a horrible 3rd year. Scheduling snafu? It was the pits. His mood sort of reached a point of no return after that November. Yuck!

That 3rd year ended finishing and going into practice (of course) and whenever I would walk by his office on the way to my OB (at Rose), I wanted to put black tape over his name. :>

Another intern year horror story...during his ER rotation, he got really, really sick. His chief resident that night was one of the weaker chiefs and she refused to let him leave (she needed the help). He ended up not being a lot of help because he was getting dizzy standing up. So, she put him in a wheelchair and started an IV on him. I'm not kidding -- his next patients walked by him on the way to their little room. Then he went in to see them. Can you imagine seeing your doctor getting IV fluids and then coming in to take care of you? And THEN, the ER wanted to get his insurance info to charge him for the fluids -- and the $75 ER copay! Somehow they forgot which is good thing because that is the part where I was going to come completely unglued. I was able to pick him up much later that night. He couldn't the 6 blocks home.

I'm surprised by how much of this I remember, too.

Yeah, don't you just love the CU-IM dept! They requested that dh put in his request for "vacation" for when he wanted time off for the baby 6 months in advance. Needless to say I was really freaked out that he wouldn't make it to the birth. He was going in on NON-CALL days at 5 am and getting home at 9 pm! If we was ON-CALL it was 5 am and would get home post-call 9 pm! Luckily the chief- Pottinger was really nice, and said that if I went into labor while dh was on that service that they would make "accomodations." ( Really bad admission here- when we went to the Christmas party- we really played up the sob story of dh working really long hours, and me being completely and utterly miserable and about my due date, blah, blah) I do have to give the IM dept kudos though- dh was scheduled to do ER medicine the next month. Emma came the last day of his vacation. The dept then rescheduled dh so he would have a couple of extra days off, and then worked at night so he was home during the day the rest of the month to help me out. I think that was the brightest moment during internship.

That is crazy about the IV fluids!!! I think that has to be a doc thing, because there have been a lot of times where dh will go in while being really sick, give himself or have someone else give him IV fluids, and then continue on his day without skipping a beat.

Yeah I don't miss internship, and consider it the HARDEST year out of the 4. Dh had 2 maybe 3 hard rotations during anesthesia training, and the only thing that went through my head was "Well this is a heck of a lot easier than internship."

Crystal

[Rapunzel]

Intern year was awful. He had Q3 in a non-surgical internship/transitional year prior to the rads residency. He hates doing clinical stuff so it was like pulling teeth for him AND he was gone almost all of the time. I gave birth to our fourth child that year, we had moved much farther away from family, and it was generally a bad year.

Comparatively, the first two years of residency here, MUCH further from family were actually easier than that intern year. Now, the third year when he became chief and suddenly took on a mountain of little "projects" and started submitting papers for publication turned out to be worse than intern year. Yup, last year was the worst year we've had yet as far as his schedule and my difficulties are concerned. This year hasn't been a peach, either. But, the one good thing is that my mother quit her job to be a full-time grandma and I happen to have her only grandchildren! Yippy! So, she's already been here for a three-week visit and she's coming back for a five week visit after Christmas when my husband goes crazy studying for the oral boards. Thank goodness!

Jennifer

[pstone]

Oh its great, no really. I love not having to pick up after her all day, and I love having the couch all to myself when I lay around and eat potato chips all day. I have trained the boy to bring me beer, and mom is not around to even see. It is great, who needs a spouse actually around when you have pictures.

...His hours were better and because he was the intern he wasn't expected to do or know a lot. This year has been crappy. Now he's lucky if he works less than 88 hours (they have an exemption here) and he has to round every Sat. morning so he never gets a true weekend, blah, blah, blah I could go on and on!

I wish that were the case here! He is expected to be operating a chief level (and not taught how to do so). Yes, he has the 80-hour work week rule, but that really means swiping out and going back in for another 20+ hours. Blah blah blah is right! Oh, yes this is 6 months into intern year in general surgery.... UGH!!!

[Flynn]

Oh its great, no really. I love not having to pick up after her all day, and I love having the couch all to myself when I lay around and eat potato chips all day. I have trained the boy to bring me beer, and mom is not around to even see. It is great, who needs a spouse actually around when you have pictures.

Intern year was so FUN, we did it twice!

Those were the days....people giving us free handouts at Thanksgiving(at the grocery store, no less) because they assumed I was the "Male Nanny" and the kid was going to spend the holidays eating store bought pumpkin pie and watching football while I mass consumed beer.

[planet]

Well,

Since we’re in the middle of intern year, in surgery, I don’t have much to compare with. We fall into the heavily in debt, have kids, sahm with poverty camp. I do not regret the majority of our choices. I think that helps me to be more positive. It is hard in specific ways. I miss dh. I have minimal breaks from the kids. Dh is missing seeing the kids and me. Transitions are the hardest part, i.e. when he has time at home after being gone a lot or has had a weekend (that’s a lot) off and goes back to a long week. Most of my time with the kids is play time. As long as I don’t have to get anything done life is quite fun.

Dh gets hard to deal with when he’s sleep deprived. He’ll mumble medical orders to me and drift off to sleep while we’re talking. He tries very hard to participate when he gets home, but it is almost like he has two settings. As soon as he stops working his body wants to go into sleep mode. This applies to work he does at home too. He can stay awake just fine to finish up a presentation, just not a conversation. The hands down hardest part of this year is the loneliness at night. Of course, that’s a big reason I come here online once everyone in the house is sleeping.

So, to answer in a very roundabout and long-winded way, internship year is the hardest for us as a couple. It is also a very rewarding year for each of us separately.

[houseelf]

jfinma & Miranda....

Huge, big whopping hug to you surg intern spouses. Holy crap you guys, I feel for you.

Personally, I have repressed this horrible memory so that I have no recollection whatsoever.

Honestly, just writing about this topic gets me all fired up all over again. This was pre-80 work week, we moved 13 hours from home, I was unemployed with an infant in a land with no sun and 6 plus months of winter. But the worst part: knowing that we would be here doing this for seven years.

Second year sucked almost as bad but did improve, third year improved even more, the two lab years were nirvana, and this year is better work wise but has a boatload of stress due to fellowship applications and interviews.

Oh yeah, the 80 hour work week does NOT include DH's continued pursuit of his PhD, his extracurricular surgery committee work, fellowship application and interviews, and all the other happy b.s. he "elects" to add on.

But really, I have no strong emotions on this topic.

Kelly

[Laker]

DW has been doing a TY intern year. DW seems to be always tired in the medicine/ER/peds rotations, but there are a lot of electives that aren't so bad. Pathology, Rads, etc she was home before noon on most days. This month is IM so it has been lots of hours, but next month is another elective with some minor step 3 studying on the agenda. We are making plans for weekend travel to hang out with friends in March.

I expect it to be more hellish than the two years he spend preparing for med school.

Between work, classes, volunteering at the ER and his gym fix I basically saw him maybe an hour or two M-F, and half the day on Sat. during the school year.

At least he could skip classes or call out sick. Bankers don't want sickies in the office.

Yeah, that was fun. I can hardly wait.

[Flynn]

Kelly wrote:

Oh yeah, the 80 hour work week does NOT include DH's continued pursuit of his PhD, his extracurricular surgery committee work, fellowship application and interviews, and all the other happy b.s. he "elects" to add on.

Um gee Kelly, isn't there a pill you can give him? I mean ENOUGH already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pstone]

Not sure why this thread got going again, but intern year still sucks. Seriously, I feel so calous. I don't care who is having a heart attack, or what the hell ever they have. Tell someone else and come home already.

[DCJenn]

The only good thing about intern year, and any other year of medical education is that they end. You get and new and different year after that and hopefully that one will be better.

Our suckiest years by far have been PGY1, PGY4 and PGY5. 2, 3, and 6 have been OK.

J.