Orientation at my new hospital is this week. I’m going to be an Infectious Diseases fellow (ID fellow) for the next 2 years training to become an Infectious Diseases specialist (ID specialist). Why does everyone wrinkle their nose when they hear this? And why do other medicine folks keep asking me why on earth I want to do this? I don’t know. I just do! Though, trust I had a lot more to say when posed this question at my various interviews for the position!
So for those who have no clue whatsoever, this is what an Infectious Diseases specialist is. Now tell me all that doesn’t sound interesting! I mean come on, the international appeal aside, infectious diseases is not just bench-work, it is the art of medicine, anthropology, entomology, epidemiology, economics, sociology, public health, and politics all rolled up into one. It’s intriguing damn it! Why do I have to defend myself?
I’ll be doing my fellowship at a major city hospital and in the VA system. I will get a chance to see the infections of the poor of this city, the immigrants, and the war veterans. I will treat everything from the usual urinary tract infection to the exotic diagnoses like rabies or kala-azar. I will know what has become endemic in the various homeless shelters of the city. I will know what funky bugs are in the water! Haha! I probably won’t see a lot of what afflicts the wealthier people of this city, but my hospital does stem cell and some solid organ transplants as well so they should pose an interesting array of infections too. Of course there will be a good number of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS patients.
I almost feel guilty because part of my job is disease prevention but the sicker a patient is, and the weirder their affliction, the more exciting it is for me in trying to solve the problem.
I’m so excited! First I spend a couple of weeks in the microbiology laboratory staring at agar plates! Yay! Then the real deal begins. It’s going to be tough. Another steep learning curve which hopefully will not be as awful as intern year. Plus, I’m registered to take the Internal Medicine boards at the end of August, so I’m supposedly studying for that too! Woe is me!
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