End of Rads

On Wednesday, I finished writing my teaching case report, which is on something kind of esoteric that the attending will hopefully find interesting. I'm still not at all enthusiastic about rads, but I can honestly say that I feel a little more comfortable with reading films. So at least that's something--not that it makes me feel any better about having my circadian rhythm knocked totally out of whack because of sitting in a dark room all morning. Adding to my general sense of misery, it seems like the UH radiology department is one giant petri dish these days. Whatever it was that was going around has now come around to me, and I've been sick all week.

At least it's over now. I'm sure in another week or two I'll be on call, and I'll start looking back on these last two weeks as some kind of nirvana of getting out by 1 PM every day. But wow, as important as knowing how to read films is, I can't imagine a specialty that could possibly be more effective at inducing me to fall asleep instantly than radiology. I honestly don't know how people do it for an entire career. But the radiologists have my utmost respect, not only because they enjoy this stuff, but because they have an extremely impressive command of anatomy. In particular, they have a very good sense of where tiny objects like blood vessels are located in three-dimensional space, which is something that I often don't quite have the knack for.

The LCME site visit starts this weekend, and the administration is tense on both campuses. All week long, Dean Franco has been sending us emails about LCME things, reminding us about what we have to do, how to act, etc., over and over. I've reached the point where I don't read the emails any more. It's not like an LCME site visit is something you can study for, and it's not like I'm going to jeopardize Case's accreditation by behaving unprofessionally at the meeting!