So i worked the 4-12 shift this past week, and i think i'm getting close to functioning at 100%. I've had normal interactions with patients, and i'm able to extract the relevant parts of the history, integrate them with the physical exam and ancillary studies, and come up with a reasonable diagnosis and plan. My main issue is a persistent "fogginess" to my thought process; that is, needing to exert a little more energy to be able to focus. It's not unlike the feeling one gets after working 24 hours straight, and it's a good thing that my residency trained me to work under those exact conditions.
Another problem is multitasking, in that i have to completely concentrate on finishing one thing before paying attention to another lest i forget what i'm doing (although this may have been a pre-exisiting issue that i'm just more aware of now). The underlying knowledge base and decision-making ability otherwise seem to be completely intact. Despite my rising confidence in my post-concussive abilities, i'm still thankful that the inherent redundancy in what i do (e.g. the resident/APP sees the patient before i do, and my partner rounds on him/her several hours later) ensures that nothing gets missed.
My mental picture of what happened closely match the way my doctors explained it: my brain was so severely rattled by the fall that the connections between my personality and my memory were completely ripped apart for a few hours (hence the six hours that i can't remember). Since then, the connections have started to reform, albeit at a glacial pace. While i'm frustrated that it seems to be taking forever, i'm told that i'm progressing as expected. Patience, grasshopper... it'll get better eventually.
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| My normal CT scan. Proof that i have a brain. |
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