Since I knew this was going to be a slow week, I planned some more interesting things to do for myself. On Monday, I spent the day with a current medical student up at Einstein in the Bronx. Went to a couple of lectures on the cardiovascular system, had lunch with a bunch of very nice first years, checked out a student apartment (oh my god, I can't even begin to tell you how cheap it is to live up there, compared to Manhattan!!), toured Jacobi hospital, which is gigantic and then even met up with my long-lost friend who's a resident there - long-lost precisely because since she started her residency a year and a half ago, I have seen her 3 or 4 times, oyy, this is my future! I am not sure if they put drugs into the water at Einstein or what, but everyone I talked to seemed so happy, not stressed, liking the school, liking each other, friendly and warm! It makes me wanna just cancel all those waitlists and stop waiting for that phone call from Stanford. I don't know, not much time left now, I can do it!
Talking about hospitals... I probably spend more time in various ones already than I do at my apartment. My lab is in one, I volunteer in another one, most days I even get lunch in a third one (it's really because I cannot resist Au Bon Pain soups and pastries) and tour others trying to decide which one would be best suited to start learning to become a doctor, so that I can actually spend my whole life in another one! Well, I shouldn't complain, I like hospitals. Weird, huh? Obviously, it's very different being in one as a patient. I don't know anything about that. But last week, a friend of mine had knee replacement surgery (ouch! her scars look scary, like her knee is a huge zipper) done right here at HSS (not that I would want to further advertise this outstanding institution, but we are the number one ranked hospital in orthopedics in the US). So for the first time since I started working here, I visited someone in an actual inpatient hospital setting at HSS. Now I know why we are ranked number one! It's quite luxurious, actually. The view from my friend's room was something very similar to this:
Since she was a bit confused as a side effect of the heavy narcotics she was on, they had a nurse sit with her 24/7. The nurse who was there when I visited was wonderful: she was very motherly, kind, she even cut and arranged the flowers I brought into a lovely bouquet. While I was sitting in the room, a lady came by to take the next morning's breakfast orders. Coffee or tea? What flavored yoghurt? What kind of pastry? How would you like your eggs? What kind of juice? At one point I asked if I could come have breakfast with her the next morning. Apparently, they are similarly attentive if you just come in for an outpatient visit - although I have heard that some of the doctors who don't take insurance charge in access of $500/visit!
Today, we got gifts at work! HSS is also the official hospital for the New York Giants, and so they made these sweatshirts for all employees. We all posed in them for hours this morning, even though they were all huge - only L or XL available, I wonder, do they know there are women working here as well?? They are much nicer though than previous employee appreciation gifts (like the bright orange T-shirts that only came in XXXL).
Now I am off to yet another hospital (NY Presbyterian across the street) to visit my ailing friend who's now in rehab. The view from there isn't too shabby either:
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