Monday
Monday Morning: Things change month to month as a fourth year, and this month Mondays are reserved for my clinic days. There are no intakes fourth year so all I see are follow up patients. I get to see my patients at my own pace and spend extra time with them doing medication management and therapy. With the extra time, I get to build a better story of who they are and what they experienced in their lives to better relate and understand them. When lunch time comes, I text my colleagues and meet up for lunch.- Monday Afternoon: After lunch, I continue seeing my follow up patients and weekly therapy patients. I build in some admin time to finish up any notes and answer my inbox, usually before 5 p.m. Whew, I am so beat and ready to get home.
- Monday Evening: I arrive home from work, I hug and kiss my wife and kids. Then, I cook dinner; tonight, we are having my wife’s favorite, hot pot, which consists of soup base, various veggies, dumplings, meatballs, and brisket slices. I spend some time with my kids, which usually involves playing battle bots with my son and dancing with my daughter, before putting them to bed after a bath and bedtime story. Finally I get to unwind by watching What We Do In the Shadows with my wife and ponder what I would do with eternal life.
Tuesday
- Tuesday Morning: My current rotation has me at Sierra Tucson, a premier residential treatment center. Since I am a PGY-4, I get a lot more autotomy not just in clinic, but on other rotations as well. I get to see my own panel of patients here and be the leader of the team. I grab some lunch and free coffee from the cafeteria before I head out back to the resident clinic.
- Tuesday Afternoon: After lunch, I see some more patients and watch some of my psychotherapy tape. I then staff my psychotherapy session with my supervisor, and she helps hone my skills. I am interested in getting better at psychodynamic formulations so I appreciate the challenge and practice she offers during supervision.
- Tuesday Evening: I head home and hug and kiss my wife and kids. Cook dinner and tonight is Japanese curry night, my favorite. For tonight, I play Transformers with my son and pretend to cook with my daughter. Then, I help get them into bed. Curious on what it is like to run my own Linux server, I spend majority of the night installing Linux Mint on an old laptop and installing dependencies. Before bed, I reflect on my day and think about how hard life would be without the unlimited coffee and breakfast bar on my rotation.
Wednesday
Wednesday Morning: For supervision, I go to Ajo Café and my supervisor buys me breakfast. We discuss finances, job contracts, and new novel treatments. I head back to clinic to see patients before didactics.- Wednesday Afternoon: I text my colleague and we head to lunch together. Afterwards, we go to the residency meeting or journal club together, depending on the week, and meet up with underclassmen. Then, it is off to didactics where we learn Advance Therapeutics, Psychodynamic theory, and what to look for in job contracts and negotiations.
- Wednesday Evening: I come home and hug and kiss my wife and kids. Today, we decide to eat out and head to the park. In-n-Out is our family’s go to; can’t beat double cheeseburger, cheeseburger, grilled cheese, three fries, and milkshake for $20, especially with this economy and inflation. After, we head to the park and my kids enjoy themselves on the splash pad and playground. When we get home, I put the kids to bed and work on my server. I create a docker environment with a container for Gluetun, Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, and Jellyfin and another container for PiHole and wireguard. I’m pretty sure I made some of those words up. I read a bit before heading to bed.
Thursday
Thursday Morning: Since my rotation does not start until 9 a.m., I have time to get my son ready and drop him off at his preschool class. I spend some time with my daughter, chasing her in her Bluey mini car before heading to work. I spend the morning at Sierra Tucson seeing patients, sitting in process groups, and educating medical students. It’s so exhausting, I got to go get coffee from the cafeteria; I get upset because I get the premium hazelnut coffee, the Monin’s hazelnut syrup, and they have oat, almond, soy, and whole milk but not frothed?? My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.- Thursday Afternoon: After getting some lunch and second round of free coffee, I see some more patients and staff with the attending. I answer emails pertaining to patient care as well as get collateral and update patient families. My day ends at 4 p.m. where I finish up my notes and head home.
- Thursday Evening: I get home and hug and kiss my wife and kids. Since I am home a bit earlier, I decide to cook something a little more involved; we decide to have lemon garlic chicken, oven baked potatoes, and rice. Spend some time pretending to drive with my son and dancing with my daughter before putting them to bed. My wife and I are both gamers, so tonight we decided to play Tears of the Kingdom. Really Nintendo? Have to solve puzzles to get light orbs after saving lives? Ridiculous.
Friday
- Friday Morning: Since I am also at Sierra Tucson on Fridays, I don’t have to be there until 9 a.m. allowing me to drop my son off at preschool and spend some time walking in circles with my daughter. I see my patients until 11 a.m. then it is lunch and second coffee break. I hang out with the PGY-2 on rotation and medical student and impart my knowledge on them. They seem eternally grateful.
- Friday Afternoon: After lunch, I continue seeing patients and then staff. In between patients and staffing, I work on my resume and medical student presentations. As a PGY-4, I get to teach medical student classes, so I prep for my lectures to make sure they are as dry as my humor. When it is 4 p.m., I head home.
- Friday Evening: I get home, hug and kiss my wife and kids. Get started on dinner, tonight is spaghetti. Then after, we head to the library to get some books to
read and let them play. Then come home and get them ready for bed. My wife and I relax by watching some reality TV which makes us appreciate our lives and laugh at how ridiculous others can be. Before bed I do some work on my CV and look at recruiting emails.
Saturday
As a fourth year, I have my weekends free without call or night shifts. To supplement my income as a starving resident, I moonlight two weekends a month. There is ample opportunity to moonlight in Tucson, and this weekend I will be doing internal moonlighting, however there are options for external moonlighting as well. I head to the unit, get the low down on the patients from the nurses, see them, then head for my lunch break. Lunch finishes, work on notes, and staff with the attending. I finish around midday and head home, hug and kiss my wife and kids. I play with my kids which involves singing Old McDonald and tickling my son as that would be the noise if he were the animal on the farm and lifting my daughter up and down like she’s on the Tower of Terror; you heard right, Tower of Terror – I’m old school. Then, we head to shop for groceries for the week. Along the way, we pick up Costco pizza for dinner.
Sunday
Since I know the patients now, I am faster. I see the patients, write the notes, staff and head home a little earlier. After I get home, I hug and kiss my wife and kids. I play with my kids a bit which involves me being “the bad guy” (jokes on my son, I already am) and guessing what my daughter has in her mouth will kill her or not, and then go get the rest of the groceries or enjoy time out as a family. It can get hot here in Tucson, so my wife and I take my kids to indoor places to play including the Children’s Museum or Wild Katz (indoor playground) to tire them out. We pick up some dinner, for those who hung on this far, it’s Costco roasted chicken and caesar salad. After we put the kids to bed, my wife and I spend some time watching trash TV (90 fiance, Love is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, the Ultimatum, etc - *Chef’s Kiss*) and read before heading to bed to start another week.
