MedFamily

In this episode of Med Family , Eric and Karen continue their open discussion about life after an unexpected fellowship match outcome and what it means to pivot when carefully laid plans fall apart. Now in PGY-3 of internal medicine residency, Eric reflects on the professional uncertainty that follows a competitive match cycle. At the same time, Karen offers a perspective on supporting a medical c...

After a long hiatus, Eric and Karen return to Med Family with a candid New Year check-in. In this episode, they catch up on the past six months of family life, residency, and the realities of parenting through sickness, ER visits, co-op schooling, and sleepless nights. Eric shares an honest reflection on the cardiology fellowship application process, the disappointment of not matching, and the emo...

We're back after a little break. In this episode, we try to catch you up on the goings-on and the new changes. We talk about how we're going to join a Coop, and Eric is going to CO for an away rotation for fellowship. Also, an update on all the items Eric is doing to improve his CV, including research, and 2 new podcasts: IM basics and Rebel Crit. Please stay tuned for updates on these.

ICU Nights and Fellowship Prep Long time hiatus, but we’re back on ICU nights. Updates from the prior weeks but the family is good and we’re grinding through the night rotation. Also, looking ahead we have the eye towards fellowship so we’re doing research and trying to set up an away rotation.

Catch Up: Admits and Pulm Rotations Multiple weeks since our last update. Halloween, election, admissions and pulmonology rotations have occurred.  Additionally, we talk about the stress of being a 2nd year resident. We hope to bring these episodes more frequently. 

Stepdown to Admissions Two weeks of Stepdown are over and now we are back on admissions. Karen joins this week and we discuss being a senior on stepdown, the end of life conversations, and research projects Eric has been working on. 

CGMs, Endocrine, and Testosterone Karen is back this week and we discuss the home life, clinical week, and Endocrinology. Lots covered in the topic and possibly some TMI regarding cycle tracking and Eric’s preoccupation with cool graphs. 

Mini Update: GI Bleed and BiPAP Mini Update. Night shift is a wrap and we are now in the clinic. For this update we review GI bleed management and BiPAPs. Hopefully, making them less scary.

Mini Update: Night Shift Quick night-time update. We’re on nights and 3 weeks in. Being a “senior” now entails Step down coverage and helping the interns. We cover procedures, ICU consult, and then just a tangent on program drama, sorry. Hopefully we can keep these updates coming

Mini Update: Pericarditis and Afib New mini-update experiment, trying something new with semi-weekly updates. This week is on pericarditis and afib. If you guessed Eric’s on a cardiology rotation you would be correct. I’ll try to be more organized next time. Sorry for the mistakes. 

ICU Month After 4 weeks of ICU days with 1 day off per week and some minor illnesses, we are back. We talk about the differences between a Step-down rotation and an ICU rotation and some of the unique aspects of the ICU that make it better and sometimes harder. 

Care Completion vs Continuity ICU Up Next The last few weeks included Infectious disease, clinic week, care clinic, and getting a new doomsday vehicle. It’s been busy and we talked about all the past events and upcoming rotations in the ICU. Thank you for sticking with us through PGY-1, looking forward to what PGY-2 will […]

Nights, Vacation, and Van Sorry for the delay in getting back on this podcast. We completed 2 weeks of nights, did a vacation where the sleep cycle slowly reverted to normal and 2 weeks of floors. We had a minor accident and the van is gone. Lastly, we briefly go over a study on AF […]

Match Week, Busy Hearts, Mint Trial Congrats to all MS4s who matched this week. We are truly happy for you and hope you enjoy the period before residency starts… I wish I could say residency was a breeze. We also recap a busy week on cardiology service, and lastly have a conversation regarding the new […]

Clinic Culture Reversal When everyone hates one thing it is hard to not join in but you forget the personal mental space charged by doing it. Changing how we think about the things we don’t like makes us dread doing them when we have to do them anyway. We also go into a couple of […]

Customer Service and Comfort Care Back again after 2 weeks on floors. 1 week on acute and another one on stepdown. We discussed some of the things we learned. I.e. ramblings on comfort care, medical students, and cutting down on to-dos during floor weeks. 

New Baby, New Study Plan We’re back from your hiatus with a brand-new baby. All are healthy and doing well. We discuss on this episode the birth, and the time off. Additionally, Eric is back at the clinic and starting a few new ideas to try to further his medical education during residency. 

Pulm Consults and Fellowship App Advice Another week on pulmonology and consulting in the hospital for the service. Thoracentesis, cancers, and bronchoscopy. Additionally, Eric had a brief conversation with a 3rd year resident who matched into a Cardiology fellowship and will relay some of the advice given. 

Consult Life with Pulm After weeks of floors and 1 week of clinic we are back on a consult service and life isn’t so bad. Karen is due in 1-2 weeks and we’re getting ready for the new arrival. Quick update this week, hope you all are good. 

The Burnout 6 months into this residency, it feels like I’ve hit a wall. The good news is, everyone else feels this way too.  We talk about what led up to this moment and what we are doing about it. Just keep swimming. 

Night Shift We are on night shift rotation. This episode discusses the sleep/wake schedule and its impact on family life. Additionally, we go over the day-to-day tasks and how the night is broken up. Its a busy rotation and not without its stresses. Sorry for the missed week. 

ED Rotation, Continuity Clinic, and 50 MME Max We finished our last week of ED and started continuity clinic. We discussed some lessons learned about maximum morphine mil-equivalents in opiate naive patients and got to sort of run a code. 

ED Didactics and M&Ms Update for the week. Karen does all the appointments and car updates. Eric continues with his ED shifts and attends his first ever and probably last ED didactics where they held an M&M. 

New Car, Night Shifts, and Bounce Backs Week 3 of Emergency Medicine and we’ve just completed 3 night shifts and will discuss the different approaches to patient care. Additionally, we talk about the process by which we replaced one of our vehicles. Again sorry for the missed week and late episode.

ED Shift and Interview Tips Started our ED 4 week rotation in Red Zone this week. We discuss the opportunities in the ED and learned experiences so far. Lastly, we talk about interviews. What to keep in mind while interviewing and things to watch for throughout the process.