Day One.

Well, before I talk about my first day at work, I must say that the show, "Master of Dance," really is everything I thought it would be. I know I'm such a dork, but I've really been looking forward to this show. Laughs for everyone. I love watching people having FUN dancing. I aspire to be like Tiffany from the first episode! Ha.

Anyway! So, I woke up WAY too early this morning. Just nerves, I guess. But I got the parking garage pretty easily and went up to the room where had orientation and talked to some other participants. There are eight of us, and everyone seems really nice and cool so far. Most everyone is from Ole Miss, though. Hardly anyone is representing MSU! Oh, well.

We are all split into three groups, even though people in the same group don't always do the same thing. This morning all we did was orientation, which was pretty boring, as those things usually are. We DID watch this weird hospital safety cartoon starring a mouse nurse with a mouse friend who contracted HIV from a hospital needle. But we also got our pictures made for our badges (I felt like I was in high school again, and the dorkiness totally showed on my face) and we got our lab coats, which look cool and intimidating but are pretty hot and itchy. Then, we toured the hospital and several sites away from the hospital. The hospital is SO huge, and I kept getting lost...but at least everyone else did, too. We got to eat lunch in the physician's lounge, too. Most importantly, we have to flash our badges at this little thing to make the doors to it open, which makes us look like we're actually important. But anyway. The physician's lounge was pretty neat. Some nice doctor actually talked to us and didn't look annoyed by all of us young 'uns, and there's a nice TV in there. We also can eat in there FOR FREE, and today, they had a salad bar with three kinds of salad, stuffed crab, chicken cordon bleu, roasted potatoes, corn, all kinds of soft drinks, frozen yogurt, and cereal. Sweeeet.

After eating lunch and spending twenty minutes trying to find my car, the other guy in my group and I headed over to the internal medicine clinic to spend our first afternoon with actual doctors. I got to follow this awesome female internal medicine specialist around for almost four hours, and it was pretty amazing. We saw five or six patients, and even though I saw no crazy cases, it was still interesting. Diabetes, sleep apnea, pap smear, pericarditis, medication adjustments, tests ordered...that's pretty much what I saw today. Also, I watched the doctor do a lot of charting, and I never realized how much that takes up of a doctor's day. She had to spend more time charting than seeing patients, which she told me no doctor enjoys. She also spent a lot of time just talking to me and answering my questions, which was helpful because she's a female physician with a family, which is what I hope to be one day. She only works three days a week right now while her child is so small, and that's something I'd like to consider when I have children, especially very young ones. Anyway, if I end up wanting to specialize in cardiology, I will have to complete a three-year internal medicine residency first, and I realized today that I think I would enjoy internal medicine. I think I would enjoy treating a wide range of problems for at least that long, even though I would miss never treating children.

I would write more, but I am incredibly tired. I plan on getting more sleep tonight...less nerves. Tomorrow, I'm spending the day in the cardiology unit and the cardiac cath lab. YAY! Going to watch Jon & Kate plus 8 now...it's new tonight! I know you care a LOT, right? That's what I thought.