Now at M.D. Anderson

Last month, I spent my time on Psychiatry at the Ben Taub Inpatient ward, where the daily business is schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and just plain everything under the sun. Lots of people having bizarre behavior and hallucinations, or if you're anything my most of my patients were, you had a whole lot of things to talk about, but very little of it made any sense. It was a very interesting month.

Now I've been reassigned to do a month of consult and liason Psychiatry at M.D. Anderson, the country's (and some say the world's) largest and most prestiegous cancer center. It's definitely large! I spent a lot of my dad walking across skybridges connecting all the different buildings, centers, and towers of the place, and that was after I had to initially find out where I had to go. It is a pretty confusing place, but I will say that it's a very beautiful hospital. They've gone out of their way to make it as comfortable and "resort" like as possible. They want to take the cancer hospital feel out of it as much as possible and they've done a pretty good job. The hospital lobby feels more like a hotel lobby, with large water fountain, musicians playing a piano or violin, lots of windows and sunlight. There's also an indoor forum with shops, that resembles a small mall for patients and families to shop, art galleries, garden areas and lots more. It's pretty impressive when you take it in for the first time. But it also never escapes you that as nice as it is, it's also a place that you hope you never have to spend time in other than working.

Today was my first real day there, as yesterday was mainly doing paperwork and getting badges. Since it's a consult service, people refer their patients to us for whatever needs they might have. So actually a lot of the day was spent waiting for my pager to go off. We did see 3 patients today though, with various needs, so all in all it turned out to be a pretty good day.
The different setting will probably take some getting used to (MD Anderson is a University of Texas Houston Hospital, not a Baylor hospital), but I think it will turn out to be a pretty good month, and I'm looking forward to getting to know this new team and the patients I'll have.