average sizes

No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one
-Elbert Hubbard

Today is the 8th and final day of my unplanned and unrequested vacation from emergency medicine, delivered from the People Who Control My Life, also known as Program Assistants. During my vacation I have had several long lost friends over for dinner, listened to some new records, finished grip taping Courtney's longboard, went slack-lining at the beach, played 2 games of Catan, retrieved my motorcycle from Burnaby, finished hanging pictures on the walls, read Breakfast of Champions, and made chicken noodle soup from scratch......amongst other things (like studying).

And so on.

During my emergency shifts at a downtown Vancouver hospital I have incised numerous abscesses, stapled someone's head, diagnosed a traumatic pneumothorax, been told by a heroin user not to stitch his hand up because he does not want any needles used (just use tape!), been very scared by seemingly sick people, attempted to remove objects that vibrate from certain uncomfortable locations, been somewhat bored with apparently well people and had patients die unexpectedly in the waiting room.

I think both my ER rotation and my vacation have been well spent, but in different ways I guess.

unknown rabbit

I don't think I want to get into the habit of just posting you tube videos instead of quotes, but I've been watching a fair bit of Flight of the Conchords lately, and I feel like I'd be robbing you if I just quoted them and didn't embed this gem.

I'm on vacation now. You might wonder how this is possible, to be on vacation in the middle of an emergency medicine rotation. I also wonder this, but it happened to me somehow. It's not really a vacation I guess, but they gave me 8 days off in a row (except for academic sessions), which I count as a legit VACATION. I'm on Day 4 right now, which might not technically counted as VACATION as I had to be in seminars for 6 hrs, but still-no showing up to a new hospital, not knowing what's going on, constantly being evaluated and critiqued by the staff, residents, nurses, patients, cleaning staff, whoever. I count that as a holiday.

I thought about going away for my vacation, but really, I was just in Castlegar for 2 weeks,an d pretty much everyone I know here is working, and I don't own a car. So my options for adventure were severely limited. It's been pretty sweet though, just having time to myself. I've gotten alot of useless tasks done. I'm trying to Carpe Diem as much as I can now, cause I'll be cursing this holiday as I'm working my night shifts directly before and after my end of rotation exam.