powering through when you're sick

[Sammich81]

So at the beginning of rotations, inevitably your dean will say, "Absences are excused if you are sick. Do not come and possibly endanger patients" etc etc.

How many of us have actually taken this advice our third and fourth years? I know that I personally have taken two sick days this year--once on peds and once on the MICU--and that was only after being sent home by my upper level resident or attending. I do wear a mask and gloves when seeing patients if I'm under the weather, and if it were the flu I'd stay home. But I think that no matter what people say, it reflects badly on you, especially on surgery, to succumb to illness. My surgery resident once told me how he had worked through a nasty GI virus and had to bolus himself with IV fluids intermittently throughout the day. And when I worked sick on surgery it earned me a pat on the back.

What have you guys done?

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[MR1]

I am just finishing 3rd year and have only taken one sick day, of course it happened on surgery too. When I woke up at 4am to get ready I was feeling bad and pretty soon was throwing up none stop for most of the morning. I usually go in even if I feel sick but that day there was no way I was getting away from the bathroom. It didn't seem to affect my evals in anyway but our chief did call me pucky for a couple of days.

 

[Sammich81]

Pucky? as in puke-y?

Could be worse man. My intern right now calls me Snotty Gas (b/c I have bad allergies and occasionally I burp)...but it's said with love.

 

[Dr JPH]

In 2 years of rotations I only left early once due to illness and it was because the attending took one look at me and said "you look like $|-|!T, go home!"

 

[mysophobe]

Same here. I came in once sick as a dog, and when two attendings threatened me, I finally went home. Bastards.

 

[Back34]

You guys must be just finishing your 3rd year. Your threshhold for not showing up tends to relax a bit during fourth year, e.g., damn that sun's bright, think I'll just stay home.

 

[Sammich81]

You guys must be just finishing your 3rd year. Your threshhold for not showing up tends to relax a bit during fourth year, e.g., damn that sun's bright, think I'll just stay home.

Yeah, pretty much. I had a one and a half sick days this week and I got hassled by my classmates, of all people, who interrogated me about what symptoms I'd had and where I'd been. One jerk of a gunner even said, "yeah I heard you were at a party!" which, if I was, must have been during Ambien-induced sleepwalking. Every now and then I HATE other medical students. The attending sent me home for sh it's sake I looked so puny.

 

[Back34]

One jerk of a gunner even said, "yeah I heard you were at a party!" which, if I was, must have been during Ambien-induced sleepwalking. Every now and then I HATE other medical students. The attending sent me home for sh it's sake I looked so puny.

That obnoxious comment deserves another sick day if you ask me.

 

[Adcadet]

Had a kidney stone. Took ~6 weeks to pass. Missed one day of surgery per my resident 'cause I felt the need to be on percocet. Managed to get by for the rest of surgery using ibuprofen/naproxen/acetominophen alone. My next rotation was emergency medicine, which was nice 'cause the shift work allowed me to use percocet every now and then, but I did pull an 8 hour shift after waking up in pain and vomiting. I consider myself very lucky that my stone wasn't ungodly painful, although the duration got annoying.

 

[Sammich81]

Had a kidney stone. Took ~6 weeks to pass. Missed one day of surgery per my resident 'cause I felt the need to be on percocet. Managed to get by for the rest of surgery using ibuprofen/naproxen/acetominophen alone. My next rotation was emergency medicine, which was nice 'cause the shift work allowed me to use percocet every now and then, but I did pull an 8 hour shift after waking up in pain and vomiting. I consider myself very lucky that my stone wasn't ungodly painful, although the duration got annoying.

Yeeeoowwwwccchhh, stones. Sometimes percocet would make rotations go by faster kidding. It's a good thing it didn't happen at the very beginning of surgery.