In paediatrics, doctors often talk about milestones - smiling, cooing, standing, walking. It just occurred to me that I too hit several milestones in the past week. For one, I have been an intern for 1 month. To say that I enjoyed every moment of it would be a lie. You get abused in every single direction you care to name - patients, patients' families, senior doctors, nurses, even sometimes your fellow interns. Pagers just keeps beeping - yes I know the patient needs a new medication chart but can it not wait for me to have my lunch?! Can I not have a cup of water which I have not had for the past 8 hrs! I truthfully believe that after a typical day of working as an intern, we would satisfy the criteria of having an acute renal failure.
Second milestone - I got my car, finally! My first car!
I'm very happy with it. It's amazing how mobile you become when you have a car. Not to mention that grocery shopping is no longer a pain - both literally and figuratively. I got my car on Thursday and have since clocked over 100km according to the odometer. I got a GPS as well and thank god for it! Even with the GPS I still make the wrong turns - usually because I wasn't quick enough to response to turn left/ right in 100m. Seriously, with so many cars how does it expect you to change 3 lanes in that amount of distance?!
Third milestone - I have applied for my first credit card. Crossing my fingers that it gets approved. I have been a good customer of the bank for the past 4 years and have always paid my bills and rent on time and well I have no credit history.
I'm also counting down to the time my mum will be coming over...In 3 weeks! I'll be able to have dinner with someone other than myself. I can see why some of my seniors have said that once you start working as a doctor, it can get lonely at times. I have not been able to catch up that often with my fellow former classmates since we started work. Not because we are working extended hours but just simply because on the weeks that they work weekends I am not and vice versa. So coordinating a time suitable for everyone is proving to be an issue.