Davis and Day 1 as a "real doctor" (maybe) :)

I forgot to include some pictures of my little jaunt this past Saturday morning to the cute town of Davis, CA, about 15 miles west of here on Hwy 80. They have great Farmers' markets on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoon/evenings (with live entertainment and things!), which I was told I needed to check out. So off I went. The pics aren't the greatest, but here is one booth and then some kids playing in the patio sprinklers.

"World's Best Popcorn" (if you like popcorn, that is-- I'm not a huge fan)

Central Park by the Farmers' Market

The town was bigger than I thought. I didn't make it over to the campus, but Davis is home to UC Davis, a college with an undergraduate population of close to 23,000 (! Richmond was only 3000!). There are tons of young people running (well, maybe not all running, but you get the idea) around everywhere. They are also biking everywhere-- Davis is like the bicycle commuting capital of the world or something. I think there are the most bikes per mile of roadway there than anywhere else in the nation. It's very cool! I even saw a bike path alongside the highway I took to get there-- I'll have to figure out how to get on that sometime for a nice (,FLAT) ride :). I wandered around the downtown area a bit-- saw some neat indie bookstores and art shops and got some yummy pluots and hummus from the market.

Okay, onto my first day as a "real" doctor! :) Actually, I'm not sure that is accurate-- on Friday, at the hospital-wide intern orientation, we got a talk from someone who works with the California medical board who told us that until we are "licensed" (which entails passing USMLE Step3 and all that-- and CA has one of the most stringent licensing laws), we are NOT to claim that we are doctors. We can NOT introduce ourselves as "Dr. so-and-so" or claim to be a physician. We can say "resident" or "M.D." but we are NOT doctors. This, as you can expect, caused a lot of confusion. "But we have been told to introduce ourselves as Dr. so-and-so," said most of the interns. "Does our M.D. not mean anything?" asked others. "Ask your legal department," instructed this guy. Geez. So even though someone from HR clarified that, under the UC Davis system, we are allowed to "claim" doctorship, this guy scared and confused us all, and I'm not sure how to introduce myself.

Today, I started in OB/GYN clinic. I worked with Hao and Andi, two second-(almost third-year) OB residents, and ended up splitting their lists so that I would staff some patients on my own with the attending (who doesn't necessarily have to see the patients!). This, although slightly unnerving, was also very cool. My name stood as the "providing" M.D. (they give us provider numbers and things). It's nice to finally have some independence and be trusted! I did a lot of OB return visit checks as well as one new OB visit (with ultrasounds!), as well as some paps and gyn exams. Truly, this was great to start with, because OB is basically OB wherever you are, and it is nice to start with something I feel extremely comfortable with. I also LOVE clinic. However, what was really hard was getting used to all the paperwork-- lab forms, consent forms, return visit forms, billing forms, etc. It is hard to be efficient when you don't know where anything is-- i.e. where in the chart you look for certain tests, where the microscope slides are, where you order ultrasounds, etc. I think I was getting the hang of it by the end, but it is just a bit slow in starting. In fact, on L & D, they have little pin buttons on the wall that say things like "I am just an intern," which I feel like asking if I can wear on my white coat (this is also weird to get used to-- we have to wear white coats now!) :) Anyway, everyone (including the patients) was very patient, supportive, and understanding, and I had a good first day of my first job!

I'm loving the bike commuting! The ACC (ambulatory care center) where I'll be spending lots of time is about a 15 minute bike ride from my door. This includes a left turn off a busy road (there is another tricky left turn on my way home) which I haven't quite figured out how to work yet. I have a nice little mirror on my bike handle which lets me see traffic coming behind me, but it's really hard to get in the left turn lane unless it's really clear. So I've been crossing at some crosswalks (yes, with my cute helmet and all that). It took a bit longer to get home, with the traffic lights not in my favor-- but it's still a really easy commute and I love getting the exercise, as well as getting the time to "gear up"/"wind down." And it's nice feeling like I'm saving $40/month on parking.

Anyway, Day 1 of internship went well. It's weird not seeing my co-interns regularly after spending so many hours with them last week, but I hope we meet up from time to time (if only to read eachother's PPDs [TB tests] and stuff-- we were told we could do this! How cool and "doctorly," eh?).