Happy Humpday!

It's the middle of the week and I couldn't be happier. Just 2 more days left till the weekend!

In the morning, my doctor informed me that she had to leave at 3 pm for an appointment. I thought to myself, “oh, nice. It will be an early day for me too.” Not at all. 

We began the day with the usual revision of the files, checking to see what happened overnight, and placing any new orders for imaging, consults, or labs. For the first time, we saw all the patients and started working on their notes before noon.

At 1 pm, we had the usual education presentation. Today, it was on the new guidelines for surveillance of patients with polyps and screening for colorectal cancer. The take-home message was that surveillance is now only indicated for high-risk adenomas >10mm, high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, >5 adenomas, and serrated polyps >10mm or with dysplasia. This might seem like many big words to the average person, but basically, studies have proven there is no longer a need to perform endoscopic surveillance in patients considered in the low-risk category. Research shows that patients with up to 4 low-risk adenomas can be regarded as in the low-risk category and do not need extensive follow-up for colorectal cancer.

We ate our lunch while listening to the presentation, and then I performed an ascites puncture. 

When 3 pm came, my doctor told me goodbye and that the professor was coming between 4-5 pm to do ward rounds with me, so I should be prepared to present our patients to him.
Wait, I am going to do what…I took a deep breath and started to review the notes I’d written during the day. Once I was confident with those, I looked to see if my doctor wrote any additional notes. Alright, it was going to be okay. I could do this, I told myself. I reassured myself that I knew the patients. After all, I’d seen them every day, participated and assisted in their care. How hard could it be?

I reviewed the files of today's admissions. Those would be the most difficult to present since they were new, and I hadn’t yet gotten familiar with their history.

Soon the Professor came, and I presented our patients. I asked the questions my doctor needed to be answered for us to proceed with the patient’s care, and we went to see them. Once we completed the round, I went back to the doctor’s office to write more notes based on our rounds.  

Here I am finishing up my list of tasks for the morning before going home.

I like to make handwritten notes while we're rounding so that when I get back in front of the computer I have everything I need to make the notes and that way I am sure I won't forget anything. 

I wrapped up the things I could do without my doctor and made a list of the others I will discuss with her in the morning. I checked with the other doctor on duty that none of them were urgent matters then headed home.