Freaking out - 1st wk of internship

[zzzzzz]

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After coming off my 1st 26 hour stint, I am starting to freak out a little bit. I was so exhausted I was getting sick to my stomach, and I am overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities. Please tell me this gets better. The thought of feeling like this for 3 years is horrible. Thanks.

 

[mackie]

After coming off my 1st 26 hour stint, I am starting to freak out a little bit. I was so exhausted I was getting sick to my stomach, and I am overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities. Please tell me this gets better. The thought of feeling like this for 3 years is horrible. Thanks.

It's gets better . . . not quickly, but it does get better. Hang in there! 👍

 

[glorytaker]

After coming off my 1st 26 hour stint, I am starting to freak out a little bit. I was so exhausted I was getting sick to my stomach, and I am overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities. Please tell me this gets better. The thought of feeling like this for 3 years is horrible. Thanks.

That's not good to hear. I'm taking my first night of call tomorrow- 30 hours straight in the hospital. I'm trying to keep a positive outlook. Let's see how long that keeps up.

 

[chic]

had my first night on call 3 days ago. I felt exactly like zzzzz....but then i got some sleep and feel better.

 

[Wednesday]

Hey! I got sick to my stomach too! I was worried it was something wrong with me. Let's hope that doesn't happen everytime or this is going to be a LONG four years!

 

[fpdoc06]

yea, the first few days (very first 'on call' on 7/3) as a lowly intern wasnt as glamorous as first thought. fortunately, there were many people that understood. what ive gathered is that competence comes with time, and with time comes experience. for me the hardest part is being patient with myself.....i agree, it seems like drinking water from a fire-hydrant. just hang in there, and soon that overwhelming feeling wont be so overwhelming (as so my senior says!). good luck, guys....

 

[cchoukal]

It definitely gets better. You get more accustomed to not feeling like butt when you're tired, and as your competence grows, the responsibility doesn't seem nearly so overwhelming.

 

[jamie]

Try your best to get something for breakfast in the morning, even if it's something stolen from the floor "nutrition" room (and, if you're addicted to caffeine like me, a cup of coffee). Some of the post-call days that I felt the worst were when I was all shaky and having a horrible caffeine-withdrawal headace.

And if need be, take a quick nap before driving home... we all have heard or experience post-call driving horror stories.

At least being post call gets you lots of pity (and an excuse for the very random thoughts I've spoken aloud during rounds after a night of no sleep).

 

[Blade28]

It will definitely get easier...but more exhausting...

 

[edmadison]

It does get better. It's funny to read everyone's experiences because I'm the PGY-3 night float at my hospital. I forgot how overwhelming everything can be. Working with the interns on their first call in the NICU -- they are totally freaked out and we have very low acuity right now. Just remember this. All the senior residents have gone through what you did and you will do just fine.

Ed

 

[Methyldopa]

It does get better. It's funny to read everyone's experiences because I'm the PGY-3 night float at my hospital. I forgot how overwhelming everything can be. Working with the interns on their first call in the NICU -- they are totally freaked out and we have very low acuity right now. Just remember this. All the senior residents have gone through what you did and you will do just fine.

Ed

My upper level told me a similar thing. Everyone has hickups when they first start their internship, everyone understands.

And here I was July 1st in the ICU and on call!!!

I was totally lost, but my second call got easier. As you go along I'm confident, everyone improves.

 

[Jalopycat]

My first code was today and it couldn't have been in a worse place: at the CT scanner. Hell, I didn't even know where the radiology was!! I do now.

Thank God the first week is almost over! I'll never have a first week of residency ever again. Neither will you. Hang in there, ZZZZZZZ.

 

[dr_singh246]

i also felt the same on my first call

 

[deleted4401]

In just one month you will feel a 100x better. I started off easy, but after my first call night, I felt exactly the same. Nauseated in the AM, saying weird stuff to my co-interns, stumbling through presentations, barely able to write notes in the AM. I wouldn't say it gets better, but it gets easier. The work load is the same, but you don't feel frazzled. Instead of nauseated or overwhelmed, you just get pissed off. Sort of better, right? My last month was the same rotation as my first month, and I could tell how much better things had gotten. I could just coast ... You'll get there!

-S

 

[chic]

it is my day off, and i feel much better. One tends to see things so horrendous when tired!!! It makes me smile that other people feel the same way 🙂

you are right jalopycat "we will never have a first week of residency ever again!!!
That makes me SOOOO happy 😳

 

[docB]

During my intern year on my ICU rotation I worked a brutal 36 hr shift during a ~110 hr week. Toward the end I was putting in a central line and I started to hallucinate. I knew it was just my head so I was able to soldier through but it was a little scary. I had more than one time where I don't remember driving home. One time I even parked my car out on the street in front of my house instead of in the driveway. I never did this and I don't recall doing it. Those times were a little scary too.

 

[chicamedica]

OMG, these memory lapses and gibberish talking have already been happening to me as a med student. . .i hope it doesn't get too much worse now as an intern. . .i already sound like a nonsensical idiot on the floors! I mean one thing and say something completely different! I really should have better sleep hygiene than i do.

 

[Idiopathic]

I havent forgotten anything yet, but nothing can compare to closing your eyes at 400 AM and getting a page at 407 AM, rushing to the patients room in the SICU and hearing "s/p liver transplant, platelets 30 thousand, pressures in the 80s systolic, potassium 2.9, intubated on no sedation and not waking up. What do you want to do?"

My answer: 20 of K, 250 of albumin and I called the primary team.

Never underestimate the value of the primary team. They ended up saying "definitely no albumin" initially, but then started it anyway after eyeballing the px. I felt vindicated somewhat.

 

[signomi]

we all have heard or experience post-call driving horror stories

Ahhh yes, as an intern coming off 39 straight hours of CCU call I hit a fire hydrant in the fog....but in my favor, it totally ran out in front of me.

 

[DOtobe]

It definitely gets better. The first week is the worst, just learning all the logistics of the hospital (i.e. where the CT scanner is 😉 ), nevermind dealing with patient care issues. It took several weeks for the nausea induced by my pager going off to go away. But it does get better. I was helping the new interns with admissions/cross cover on July 1st, and it amazed me how much I learned in the course of 1 year.

And I had several episodes post-call where I really didn't remember driving home. It's just like you are on auto-pilot when you are post-call.

 

[irrka]

i think you also learn to tuck in the patients way better very fast: first call I got hardly any sleep and it was all stupid and panicked running around. i'm not post-call from the second night and got 5.5 hours of sleep. granted, we weren't the admitting team so i got to sleep though all the random stuff that came in at night like the guy with the humongous dildo who ended up with a colostomy. eeeek.

 

[Whodathunkit]

I remember starting some ER shifts as overnight. And my body had not quite adjusted to a 7P-7A schedule. Having to drive home at 8:30AM in rush hour traffic is not fun. I remember pinching my leg as I was driving home, and thinking...I'm almost there, I'm almost there, I'm almost there. I just could not stand the thought of sleeping at the hospital. I had to be back there at 7PM again. And besides, there were no call rooms per se for rotating ER residents. One of the downfalls of being at a program that didnt have an ER residency...just rotating medicine, surgery and offservice residents coming through.

Boy did that month of 22 12hr shifts suck.

 

[kutastha]

My first call wasn't a slap in the face - it was a full-force kick to the nuts. I'm doing outpatient, but was on intern float on 7/2 crosscovering general peds and nephrology- so I knew zero about the patients, zero about the hospital, zero about the ED, zero about pretty much everything - yet somehow survived (and thankfully, so did my patients).

 

[docB]

My first call wasn't a slap in the face - it was a full-force kick to the nuts.

That pretty much sums up residency. That quote is kind of like The House of God boiled down to one sentence.