Cat Scratch Fever

Hey All,

I’m rounding the bend on this paediatric infectious diseases elective right now. Only 2 more days to go, and it’s killing me. The hours are ridiculously long, and I don’t get a chance to even piss on most days, which means that when I get home, I pee out a quantity of super concentrated uric acid. Not surprisingly, it burns when it comes out. Then I worry because I think I am getting a bladder infection. And it you’ve ever had one of those, you know that the thought of having another one is virtually petrifying.

So there you have it, an update, of a sort. In between brain abscesses and acute rheumatic fever, I am worrying about our residency match. It is the source of many a blowout in this house right now. I like to think that things are being resolved, but on most nights lately, I go to bed totally wiped out from the combination of worrying about my patients and worrying about my own future.

Otherwise, things are good. It’s nice to be home, and I am loving sleeping in my bed, and making dinner in my kitchen. It’s great stuff.

Again, I must cut this short to go hit the sheets. I’m spent. I know, I know, this post is strikingly similar in content to the last. Not much has changed.

I will hopefully have some exciting stories to share from out Yurt Adventure after this weekend. And, next week I will be a cardiologist, so that's got some potential too.

xo tabby

Update Vittles

It’s been a long time, I know. Since we last talked, I have been to Toronto, where I interviewed for a residency position at Harvard North. Because I was in the T-dot anyway, I decided to make a little vacation out of it and spent the weekend with Tiger and Turtlecat. We had a great time. One of the highlights was dinner at George, a friggin’ great restaurant. I also saw Tamcat and my friend Sarah. On the Monday I took a little road trip out of the GTA to visit with my friend Peach and her baby girl Asha. We had a great day of fun.

I’ve been home now since last Tuesday, deciding to cancel my last interview because I had limited interest in matching to family medicine at McGill. This week I started a paediatric infectious disease elective. I had set up the elective when I was considering applying to peds, and decided to keep it so that I could finally solidify my knowledge of antibiotics. Well, I’ve been working really long days, and it’s kind of hard stuff. I like it, but I just cannot imagine working these kinds of hours when I am done residency. It reinforces my decision to choose something that will be stimulating and great, but not all consuming. I can’t imagine how much reading I would need to do in order to stay up to snuff on all the latest bugs and drugs. Plus, I don’t understand the first thing about bacteria and viruses.

Anyway, things are going well, and I have some funny stories to tell, like the one about when I went to my UofT interview, got there late, and then burst in on a presentation in a room filled with about 60 dark-suited people. Worse still, I had thought that everyone had breakfast already, so I grabbed a couple of Danishes and some juice in the way in. imagine my surprise when I realized that the extensive spread of food was actually for after the presentation! Then I tripped over a guy who turned out to be the program director, and there were no seats left, so I had to prop myself up on something for the hour long duration of the presentation - my Danishes in plain sight.

I would like to tell you more, but a couple of minutes ago, Bobcat and I re-opened the discussion on how we will rank our residency choices. It is a pretty sensitive topic, and I had to stop part way through the discussion and ask for a recess. I felt the rage building up inside of me, and I know in my heart I am just too tired for this right now. As such, I am going to head to bed.

I will rise early tomorrow to look over the ins and outs of meningitis. The day is already shaping up to be super busy, so I will need to have some beauty sleep if I’m going to tackle it properly. Plus, we have curling tomorrow night.

Tomorrow if I have the energy, I will tell you all about how I suspected Henoch Schoelien Purpura in a kid I saw this morning, and that is what he ended up having! I was pretty proud of myself indeed. It kind of offset the fact that I had said “I don’t know” in response to about 60 questions posed by my staff doc.

Okay, good night. I hope you all sleep tight.

Tabby xo

Home at Last

It is midnight on Sunday. We just got home. I am exhausted, constipated, and grumpy. The next few days will consist of taking Metamucil q4h, running, and sleeping – plus 3 interviews in Ottawa between now and Thursday. Thankfully I have tomorrow off.

xot