Charleston

The trip was pretty uneventful. Continental Airlines came through on-time without any hiccups. And I found the car and house easily. With a little bit of daylight remaining, I drove through the lush, green country crosses many bridges along the intercoastal waterway on my way to James Islan, about 7 miles from the hospital. The room I'm staying is fine, if not the epitome of southern comfort. Another student interested in EM, Joe from Indiana, takes the other second floor bedrrom and bathroom. We've had a good time comparing thoughts and impressions on programs, EM and the Match. My only regret was that he arrived so he got first choice on rooms. I have no desk and no Internet access from the neighbors unsecured router.

Monday was a bit crazy. For a still relatively small town, Charleston has a ton of construction and activity going on. Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is a huge but compact campus with the Roper and VA hospitals adjoining it. Parking is a nightmare of highrises, remote lots and shuttle buses. After a quick orientation with the Pediatric Department, Joe and I ended up meeting at the MUSC medical school offices to get out IDs. Once we negotiated our way through one of the worst administration clerks I've ever dealt with (and she seems to have the reputation everywhere), started hiking.

It was a long, hot adventure walking across campus several times lugging my laptop and books around. It felt like an obstacle course with multiple stops for both MUSC IDs and Parking passes to lots for days and, separately, evening lots. I was too exhausted to volunteer for a shift that evening. Nine hours of sleep in a comfortable bed was just what the doctor ordered.

Tuesday I worked my first shift from 3pm to 11pm. It started off slow but I ended up seeing quite a few pediatric ER patients. Nothing was too serious, lots of abdominal pain, coughs and sore throats. The people are all very nice. Lots of southern charm and southern belles. For a people person like me, it felt great to talk with warm, friendly folk. And the teaching wasn't too bad either. Lots of pimping, but fair and non-threatening. I had received a large packet of teaching material including many relevant medical articles and little handbook that all the Pediatric Residents get. It has some great material, so I put away my adult ER textbook for a bit and managed to get through a few chapters before the shift started. This helped a lot on the pimp questions thrown at me. I hope to finish the severla hundred page packet in the next week or so.

Wednesday was a long day that started with three hours of lecture with the EM residency program. Joe and one of the EM attendings helped to plug into it. The latter heard I might be interested in the program and offered to get me more adult ER shifts and take me to lunch to discuss the program next we week. The Program Director talked to us for an hour, then we had a chance to the residents. Somehow I had missed that the program is brand new. The PYG-1s that just started are the very first class of EM residents at MUSC. This a bit concerning but also might mean it's a little less competitive. The residents and attendings I met were all very nice and friendly. The lectures were pretty good, but I definitely got the feel that there are bugs to be worked out in the program. I can't think of better facility and medical system to start a residency program in though. This would have been a great place to go to medical school.

My second 3pm to 11pm started off the same and got a little crazy at one point. I tried to be helpful and took on three patients but got reminded that first and foremost I need to always be on top of the patients I have and not worry about new patients waiting to be seen. It was a good lesson for me.

Today I'm hoping to nail down housing for next month in Worcester, MA. But I've been spending some time working on loose ends. My ERAS (online residency application) Personal Statement is basically done. However, I got my Board scores back and they weren't where I had hoped. So I'm dealing with that too. I have two off starting tomorrow. I have to decide how time to dedicate to studying versus checking the area out versus visiting other programs in the area. Always more to do.