I realize that it takes a certain type of person to go into radiology. That person is not me. I completely zone out when I look at MRI's. There are just too many damn images. I can't make heads or tails of it. Chest X-Rays are still a complete mystery. The only thing I've learned is that I know what probably normal looks like. But when I'm having a good day, I can really get into radiology. When I'm having a bad day, it's like being eaten alive by guppies. I need to work with people.
One of my attendings pointed out something rather astute. All the time, people say 'foci' such as 'a foci of infection' or 'a foci of signal intensity.' This is entirely incorrect. Foci is the plural of focus. By saying foci, it implies multiple areas. Tell this to your attending the next time someone uses foci. I can't be held responsible for the repercussions.
One last bit about the hospital. I feel a lot better about radiology now that I've seen countless numbers of residents and attendings completely flounder on a film and have to bring it to one of the radiology attendings. All this time, I thought that I was such a suboptimal person for not being able to read a CXR, but lo and behold, no one can read the damn things. I've probably never mentioned this, but we have taken to pronouncing every lettered abbreviation. An example is "Cat" scan, which is a CT (computed tomography) scan. So, instead of being the ER, it's the "err". We've had a difference of opinion on the chest x-ray (CXR). At first, it was "kix'er". This was amusing. However, while on rounds, without thinking, I referred to a CXR as a "chexer". This agreed with me much more. And thus, I refer to CXR's as Chexers. Of course, not to my attendings. They think I'm weird enough.
My current attending keeps accusing me of being a banker. He looks at me and is like, 'We work till 5PM here, sir. Not like your banker hours.' Do I come off like a banker? I think not. Ironically, I checked up on some of my friends in grade school. Something like half of them work at some bank or financial institution. I'm the only one from my 8th grade class that went into medicine.
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