Happy Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately, I'll be spending my favorite holiday not with my family in South Carolina but with my patients in the hospital. I've switched to Internal Medicine and I've really enjoyed the switch. I spend all my time in the hospital - being on call every 3 nights is really a drag, but it's really challenging and interesting. I'm still at the point where I feel like I can't do anything right, but I'm quickly improving. It's a tough learning curve.

I'm definitely in the thick of it now. I spent two weeks in the ER , which I loved, and jumped right into the action. You never knew what was coming through the door. I found Psychiatry to be very helpful in that situation. In the end, I found it exciting but a bit depressing. My second day on the job, I found myself cleaning the wounds of a 13-year old who shot himself (accidentally) in the thigh. I irrigated his wounds, made him an outpatient appointment, and sent him on his way. After doing chest compressions on a 15-year old with a bullet in his head, I realized this wasn't the field for me.

This past weekend, something happened that gave me a quick gut check as to where I lived. I was on call Friday, and I remember thinking "hmm...we haven't had an admission in a while."

Apparently, the hospital was diverting all admissions to the ER because the water on the entire East Bank of the city was compromised. The water pressure around the entire city was low due to some sort of turbine breakage and technically, we were on a "boiling water advisory" until Sunday evening. We were urged to boil the water we shower with and bathe with for 48 hours. It reminded me of India. In the early 90s. New Orleans - what's so great about this place is that it's so damn close to America.

As a nice change of pace, I'm coming back to South Carolina for about 36 hours this weekend. I'm flying into Columbia on Friday, post-call and coming back Sunday morning. I'd stay a few more hours, but there were no available flights. Coming out here, I had no idea how much I'd miss home, but sometimes it takes leaving to figure out what you already had. Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but it will be nice coming home.

In the mean time,

Happy Thanksgiving...

Ahmed