Back in medical school I used to write posts all about my different rotations, what I learned on each one, and what I thought about each different specialty. Now, I’m more than half way through with my first year of Ophthalmology residency. I figured I should probably do a little recap of residency so far.
For my first year of residency or “intern year” I completed a “preliminary year program” at Mayo Clinic under the department of Internal Medicine. Many Ophthalmology programs give you the option of completing a transitional year vs. a preliminary year. All that differs between the two is the structure of the year. How much time you have for electives, How much time you spend in the hospital, etc. all vary.
I started Ophtho in June of 2015 after my intern year ended. There are 4 residents in my class with me, and there are 3 years of ophtho residency, so 12 residents total.
Ophtho started off with a heavy optics curriculum and time in our COS resident run acute care clinic. Those first 4 months of refraction and COS clinic were so glorious. I didn’t even know to appreciate it back then. How I miss those simple times…
On September 1, life changed. The second years handed over the primary call pagers, and my 3 other co-residents and I started taking primary call.
Primary Call
Primary call is actually the worst thing in the whole world. When you are holding the pager, you are the ONLY Ophthalmologist who is able to be contacted for the whole Mayo Clinic system. Any patient can call you at any time of day. Patients can call you at 3 am and ask if they can have a refill of their drops. The ER can call you any time and have you come in to see any patient. Some calls are ridiculous and make you angry because you were dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to see someone with dry eyes. Some calls make you angry because someone who did nothing wrong lost their vision forever and there is nothing you can do about it.
Call is emotionally and physically draining. There is constant anxiety that comes with having a pager on you 24/7. It is something I cannot describe. When I’m on call, I have a hard time sleeping because I dream about my pager going off. When I lie in bed and try to relax, I think about my pager going off and my stomach churns with anxiety. The uncertainty of when you will be called contributes a lot to this anxiety.
I’ve tried to really think about why I feel so physically anxious when I am on call, and I can’t quite figure it out. I don’t mind going in to see patients. Most of the time, I’m happy I can help and I get to learn something as well. But, going into the ED at 1 am when you know you have a clinic full of patients the very next day is difficult.
Splitting 365 call days between 4 people means we are each on call about 92 times. Some calls are glorious and you don’t have to go in at all. Some calls are disasters (or as my co-resident calls them- dumpster fires) and you are there all day or all night. I only have 37 more call days and I am already fantasizing about handing over my pager to the new first years.
So that’s call. I could probably complain about it for 5 more pages, but I’ll just stop there.
July-October was our COS and refraction months. Then in November, we split up for individual rotations.
In November, I was on Oculoplastics. I LOVED getting to be in on surgeries and see patients with pathology of the orbit. Can’t wait for that rotation again second year.
COS Clinic
In December I was back on COS as the primary resident running the acute care clinic. COS is one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Mayo. It is a resident run clinic and gives you a ton of autonomy and chance to learn independently. It also pushes out of your comfort zone and challenges you. I worry about my patients on COS constantly. I spend tons of time doing patient follow-up, emailing primary care doctors to update them on their patient’s eyes, checking test results, looking at imaging, calling patients, and more. When I interviewed at Mayo, I remember telling one of the consultants, “I’m ready to work my butt off” and I think I knew that’s what I would have to do in COS.
I love COS because I really feel like I’m working in my own little eye clinic. I love interacting with the patients and all the other staff of the eye clinic. The techs at Mayo are AMAZING and make my life SO great all the time. They also tease me a lot and we have fun working together- it’s a good team 🙂
This is Bruce, one of the great techs at work! He teases me and tells me I will need an extra year of residency before I graduate…
The techs made this for me and decorated it- so sweet! I couldn’t get through the day without them.
January and February were much more relaxing because I was on our Neuro-ophthalmology and Ophthalmic pathology rotations. I spent the morning in Neuro clinic and then in the afternoon I went to Pathology and looked at slides and did gross sectioning of surgical specimens.
January and February were also crazy because I really buckled down and started studying A LOT for OKAPS. I kind of disappeared from the blog during those months.
Now that it’s March, I’m back on COS for the month. Since it’s my second go-around with COS I feel more confident. It’s also been a pretty slow month and I have had way less patients compared to my month in December.
For the rest of the year, I have one month on Retina in April and 2 months on Cornea in May and June. Then, come July 1, this year, the hardest year of my life, will be behind me.
Thank you everyone for following along on this journey and encouraging me!
Congratulations Andrea for being done with this. 🙂 good luck for future ahead & you will soon have your own eye clinic.
I can totally relate to the anxiety of being on call, when we do our internships, here in India, we are in the end of the so called ‘food chain’ & are usually the first ones to be called on in case of an emergency I.e.whichever department we are posted in. Its obviously less than no.of duties you get as a resident but I remember this one time when there were only two interns posted in dept of medicine & we had to do alternate days night duties, it was horrible. I couldn’t sleep the whole week properly & I felt like a zombie.
So glad you are going to finish the hardest year. Cheers.
Thank you so much for sharing! I’m an MS1, and I’ve recently become interested in ophtho, so its great to get a glimpse of what residency would really be like.
Lexi
lifeloveandmedicine.com
Nice! Ophtho is pretty great!!!
Hey Andrea! I love reading about your journey through med school and residency. I am a hopeful pre-med, and you are so inspiring! Thank you for sharing your experiences. And congratulations on almost being done with your hardest year!
Thank you so much for your comment! Good luck with premed and keep me updated on everything with you okay!?
I know this is irrelevant. .. but can you please show us your house plz…like a house tour .. and how do you keep it so clean amidst the busy schedule?
It’s not always clean lol! But if I ever clean it I will do a tour 🙂
Always a great pleasure to come here and read your note 🙂 I guess it was a great adventure – 1 st year. Can`t wait to hear more. Greetings from Poland. Gosia
Thank you so much for taking time to update the blog – you (and the blog) are so inspiring!
Im in my final year of psychiatry and it’s so encouraging to read about your days!
XOXO
from Sweden!
Thanks so much!! Congrats on being in your final year! That’s so great!
I’m in high school in Indiana so it’s always so inspiring to hear about someone from a small school/small town in Indiana being so successful. <3 Thanks so much for sharing your life with us! I love reading all your posts and watching your Youtube videos. Do you have a snapchat? I think it would be cool to watch random snaps of your life when you are busy being an awesome resident! 🙂 Thanks again!
I don’t have a snapchat but lots of people have suggested getting one… I don’t know if I have time! lol!
Loved this post! My fiance is a surgery intern so I have a pretty good idea of what his day-to-day life is like (he too could spend DAYS, maybe weeks, complaining about being on call!) but I had no idea what ophtho residency was like. I love learning about the different specialties and seeing just how much work goes into becoming a physician! It is quite impressive. Also, how does your husband handle your hectic schedule? I’d love to hear any tips or insights you have on making your marriage work during residency. Keep up the good work!
Wow- good luck to your finance! Surgery is tough! I should do a marriage post soon- thanks for the suggestion!
I’m not a health care professional, but I AM a 3rd year healthcare corporate attorney, and I love reading your blog! Sounds like an absolutely crazy year!
Thanks so much!!
Do u consider urself as more emotionally stable than avg person? Im in postbacc and debating pa vs md. I am not sure I can handle all the things that you go through juggling intense rotation and studying? Do u just pick up the pace since med school?
That’s a really tough question! I think I’m pretty emotional 🙂 But yet, you just pick up the pace and you handle one day at a time.
Hi Andrea,
Love reading about what you do! You said that this year has been the hardest- is it much harder than any year during medical school, and was a lot of that due to your call days and additional responsibilities?
It’s been way harder than medical school. I think a big reason is because of responsibilities at work and call. In medical school you are studying all the time, but you still have most of your days free. Now I’m working 60 hours a week and up in the middle of the night often, which makes it hard to live a normal life and hard to manage stress. There’s also a lot to learn and read and no time!!