Neurology 110

To be honest, I was miserable in neurology at first; I was not used to the schedule or the residents and I had trouble adjusting from family medicine and consult psychiatry where I interacted directly with attendings and had nice hours. It also took a while to remember neurology and get comfortable with the examination. Tough parts in the clerkship included my first coma exam, my first ICU patient, my first call, my first death.

But at the end of the rotation, I felt pretty good about neuro. Our residents for the last three weeks were great, I love ambulatory clinic neurology (headache and vertigo are great medical student cases), and I saw interesting (and scary) pathology on the ward service. I became comfortable with the management of stroke, seizure, and comatose patients. I developed a good rhythm and pace for doing the neurologic exam. We got good teaching, oversight, and feedback from residents and attendings. I felt that I was able to contribute to the team and to patient care. I enjoyed ICU pathophysiology. I'm sad I didn't get to do an LP, but I think compared to what I hear from other classmates, I got to see more patients, do more, and have more responsibility at SFGH.

On a side note, on my very last day of my neurology rotation, I saw one of my psych consult patients who had previously been bedbound and depressed out walking with PT and with a smile on his face.