Turning up the heat

April 20th record heat- 88 degrees in San Francisco. On such a day, residents of SF flock to Ocean Beach, savoring every moment of heat, since we can probably count the number of hot days we expect in the year on one hand. The sun was out, beating down on the city today. No fog in sight. A prelude to summer in most other places. A unique time in SF. The time to be outside.

Transitional Clerkship has a fair amount of work. We've been transplanted at different hospitals and paired with preceptors, who help us refine our case presentations and SOAP notes. I've spent my days in the General hospital learning about the stories of homeless individuals, HIV-positive patients and patients with heart disease.



The days have been spent working on becoming functional medical students. The nights and weekends have been spent enjoying our freedom. I finally made my way to the California Academy of Sciences located in Golden Gate Park, during Night Life, which transforms the academy into a hip hangout for the 21 and over crowd. During evening hours, my friends and I enjoyed the sights of a tropical rain forest, an aquarium and an albino alligator (among other things). And the best part of all- there was music and people dancing.

Imagine this- science set to the tunes of techno with a dance floor around the Galapagos Island display. Interesting...



I got a taste of what it feels like to be on-call, when we were playing The Game on Saturday- an all night scavenger hunt that involves solving puzzles and looking for clues that have been scattered all over the bay area, everywhere from Golden Gate Park to the Dutch Windmill to Lombard Street to Coit Tower to Stanford. The combination of the dark, adrenaline and intellectual curiosity got my team through the endless clues and long hours.



I am definitely savoring each moment of free time and catching up with friends. After studying for the boards non-stop, I remember how I used to feel guilty about doing anything that did not involve memorizing voluminous amounts of medical knowledge. Now, I can breathe and enjoy the sunny days (rather than curse them when I used to have to stare at the sunset and sunrise from my library window)and time spent with my friends. Long ocean runs in the heat have never felt so good. I welcome back tan lines with open arms.

I'm taking it all in- the sunshine, the realization that we will soon be treating patients, the spare time we get in between learning to be doctors- it's exactly what we need before being thrown into the next phase of our training. In less than one week, we start on the wards; I start with medicine at the General hospital and will be working 6 days a week and will be on call every sixth night, leaving me with 4 days off per month. By the looks of it, rotations will surely turn up the heat too.