Tomorrow is the first day of my life as a resident. My first six weeks will be spent on the vascular surgery service at the University of Wisconsin Hospital (UWH), along with another intern from the Orthopaedics program and a third-year from the general surgery program. I'm nervous to be sure, but also excited. I just hope I don't let my colleagues, or my patients, down.It's nerve-wracking to think that so many other people are going to be depending on me to do my job well. Some may even be dependent on me helping keep them alive! Well, enough of that...you get the picture, "great weight, long road, uphill, both ways, and so forth".
We (the other five incoming interns and I) played softball with the faculty and current residents
today. It was beautiful outside (this seems to be par for the course in Madison), and we had a real good time. Everyone seems very friendly, and I think I'm going to enjoy both my fellow interns and most of the upper levels (second through seventh year residents) as well. The program director, Dr. Mahvi, is a particularly enjoyable person. He seems very approachable and is the kind of person you can see yourself sitting around, drinking a beer, and telling it like it is with. Overall, it seems like the residents work hard while they're at the hospital and have a lot of fun when they're not.Anyway, I should really do a bit more reading on the patients I have to round on tomorrow morning. I'll be back to let you in on how things are going as the week progresses. Until then, I hope all is well with everyone and remember, live clean and fight dirty.
~AC
