#pgy2

[emgoesmed]

12/29/2025

Cozy winter nights <3

[tvmblrina]

wednesday, february 25th 2026

day off clinic means working/studying at a coffee shop with my friend while a snowstorm swirls outside 🤍

[this-is-mdness]

02.16.2025

Eat during night shift, kiddos. Even if it runs from dinnertime to breakfast time, because you will burn more energy when you are awake.

Didn't pack food for the above reason. Ate before going in, had a few snacks and some water. Woke up towards the end of my shift for a trauma. Was struggling to get the a-line in (things had been just peachy for the last few months) when I started to feel dizzy and my vision started to blur. Handed the a-line off to my attending and went to go sit down in a chair.

"HEY, SUGAR!" Shit. Is the patient hypoglycemic? What's happening?

Oh. People are looking at me. They're saying words like "honey" and "dear" and I'm pale and shaking and sweaty. I'm still on the chair but multiple people are holding me to make sure I don't hit the ground.

They wheel me out of the OR in the chair. Two people stay with me in the hallway. One of them keeps her hand on my knee because she doesn't want me to fall. Another one goes to get me a cup of ice water. My mask has disappeared and I honestly still don't know where it went.

I sit in the chair, finish my water, people check on me. When I feel well enough, I put the chair back outside the OR and head upstairs to the anesthesia lounge to find a snack.

I feel silly and embarrassed, which I think is normal. I wish stress wasn't a vasovagal trigger at times. Everyone was very nice to me. When I come back tonight, I'm packing a dinner. I'll be smarter.

And because we need to think positive: saying I felt dizzy and stepping away was the right thing to do. I knew better than to try to push through it, which I may have tried in the past. Far better to pass out in a chair, away from the surgical field.

[actuallyjomd]

Night 3/10

Favorite part of the night was when I was going to check in on one of my patients. Walked past a room and the patient, probably 5 years old, was just outside the room playing with the computer station on wheels. Just full on scanning his bracelet, clicking things, sitting on the ground having a good time in the hospital hallway at 11:30pm. Not an adult in sight.

And you know what, I just let him have at it because why the heck not. Have a good time buddy.

Later in the shift was waiting for a new diagnosis (now I know T-cell ALL) with COVID to get a CTA to rule out a PE and the poor ED got 4 traumas all at once. Policy is they can't go to CT without someone with "clean hands" so literally went down myself after 3 hours because we all need spare hands am I right?

Turns out he had a 14cm mediastinal mass and borderline tamponade physiology with rising uric acid, potassium, and phosphorus. Made it to the floor when the labs resulted and OFF to the PICU he went. We've had some mediastinal masses on the floor recently.... BUT would rather not do that again.

[the-pen-and-the-stethoscope]

Had to declare a patient dead for the first time today. Thankfully I knew it was going to happen well beforehand and had plenty of time to prepare mentally and my attending was with me the whole time. But my hands were still shaking and sweating. And there really isn’t any way to explain how it feels to listen to a silent chest that isn’t moving. 

[wishbone-md]

There is a lot of talk on the internet how people are posting pics of themselves getting the covid vaccine just for social media clout.

No, I think we should normalize getting vaccinated. I think that pics of physicians and health care workers getting the vaccine are powerful. This is the time to show the public that we are not afraid of the vaccine. So go on and post your pics.

[drdessertfox]

Was it really a shift in the emergency department if there wasn’t at least one patient who yelled “FUCK YOU, BITCH!” at me?

[caffeineinducedmd]

Time for an update.

I’m now a PGY2. Whoo. Feels weird writing “2″ with my signature line. Finished a call month of ridiculousness. On a happy elective before two more call months. Still with no idea what I want to be when I get older.

I’m jut SO tired. I like crit care medicine. But it just seems so exhausting. Another 3 years? Is it worth it? And I don’t like pulm but I need an escape. I like nephro, so there’s the possibility of nephro crit care but I don’t know if I like dialysis (I like all the other stuff). I’m just so tired. 

I think I want to do a chief year. At least give me more time to think. But then what? I don’t know. I could be content being a hospitalist. Maybe I should just do that. 

Someone smarter than me have any advice?