Small victories

As a student, doing or saying anything correctly is always kind of surprising and just feels awesome, ya know? After all the times I contaminated myself, looked like a moron, used the wrong size speculum, got lost, stabbed myself, etc. it is just nice to know at the end of the day you really are contributing. Sometimes you surprise yourself with how much you do know, what you aren't afraid of, what doesn't gross you out, and what you step up to do. For me, who is typically a scared little church mouse, these small victories add up to feel like big accomplishments....even when I know they aren't. This week I did about a million Tdap injections, influenza vaccines, 1 UA, learned to to do an ear wash, went back to my neuro stomping grounds and did an MMSE, diagnosed an acute gout flare, recognized an acute CHF exacerbation and knew the poor thing was going down hill (she got admitted), made a medication suggestion that ended up being what was prescribed, and was told, "thank you for being so thorough." In the big picture of life these things become the mundane and routine parts of medicine that get taken for granted and receive no pomp and circumstance. So for right now I'm just going to be proud of myself for doing some good things and not having the opportunity to break sterile field (because we all know that would have happened....again.)