The first 3 days.

Has it really only been 3 days? It feels like we just finished a full week of work. I don't know what I would do without this holiday today to catch my breath. Tomorrow we start seeing our own patients all day, booked every 45 minutes. Using the Electronic Medical Records system (hereafter referred to as 'EMR', or 'that friggin stoopid system', depending on the day) that we just had a crash course on yesterday morning. Yesterday we also talked with the Chief of Vision Therapy (a head honcho, one of the many), and went to clinic. This week we have also completed 6 hours of CPR training, had numerous orientations (but still have more to come) and went to clinic in the evenings, mostly to observe how it work, but I've already seen 3 patients. For Paul and I, and I'm sure the other residents, the brain is full. Tired of smiling and nodding and straining to take it all in. And it's going to take about a month before we really understand what is going on at any given time. But, that's the way it goes with a new job. They expect a lot out of us, they will push us and encourage us, but it sounds like it's all in a very positive environment. I really like SUNY as a whole, it's going to be a great place to be for a year. Our resident supervisor is awesome, she is organized and looks after us like a mother hen. She is young, too, and went through the same VT residency only 6 years ago!

For those of you curious what kind of craziness we will be participating in this year, here is my general schedule for the summer (the next 7 weeks). And keep in mind the 'end times' are when the final patient leaves. We will usually still have to finish charts...

Monday: Day off
Tuesday: Clinic 9am - 7:30pm
Wednesday: Lectures/Clinic 8:00am - 7:30pm
Thursday: Clinic 9am - 7:30pm
Friday: Clinic 9am - 4pm
Saturday: Clinic 9am - 4pm

Yes, that's right folks, we have clinic every saturday. Paul's schedule is the same except instead of Monday off, he has Tuesday off and has clinic on Monday. We get to see eachother a fair amount, but not too much. Eventually we might get the same day off, but that might not happen until Spring. Commute time to NY (door to door) is anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how traffic is.

The other residents that we work with are all so nice!! All those years going through college and then optometry school, I kept hoping to find myself in a group of mature peers. Well, with that dream down the drain, I didn't have much hope for residency. I didn't even think about it, actually. But it turns out that everyone is smart, professional, and really friendly. I knew half the residents from various residency interviews, and I was thrilled to see them again. What a great group of people! In fact, tonight we are meeting up with some of them for some 4th of July celebrations. We might watch the Macy's fireworks, but it's supposed to be a little rainy/thunderstormy (nature's fireworks) all day, so we'll just see. If we did go, the fireworks would look like this:

Who knows, maybe I can talk Paul into staying to watch the show, but we are both feeling so tired today. Like, perpetually hungover without the headache. Just dragging... i mean, I've already had a cappucino and tea, and I still feel tired. Paul and I both have resisted coffee's energizing and addicting properties through undergrad and opt school, but I have seriously considered buying a coffee maker recently. Especially to jump start my lanky sleepy coworker/roommate, he really drags in the AM and I can't carry him to the bus, I'm just not that strong (i know, it surprised me too).

Paul will make an addendum to this post, or do his own soon... he's got to put in his own 2 cents on our NY experience so far.