It would be an easy move....

4 days, but who is counting?!?

It is official that I have matched but the question remains, where?

What if I match in So Cal? Only 106 miles down the road from San Diego. Just ten minutes from where I am currently finishing my medical school rotations. House hunting would be easy. There would be no change in climate and we could spend our weekends in San Diego or LA.

Did you know?
-Inland Empire is known for its Oranges and was originally named Orange Empire.
-One could ski at Bear Mountain and surf at Long Beach in the same day while stopping at home for lunch.

Residency Fate Day Countdown

Just 14 days until rank order lists are due and 37 days until Match Day! Very exciting. And kind of scary, but mostly exciting.... In a month and a week I'll find out where I matched and where we will be living for the next 3-5 years. And then before I know it intern year will be here and I'll be doing what I have only dreamed of up to this point.

Right now I'm doing at IM-TSS (Internal Med, Teaching Selective Service) in Cali and trying to remember all the adult medicine that I have not had to practice or use in months! I think my brain has atrophied during 4th year. It is truly sad how little I remember. I know that I used to know all about CHF, Renal Disease, Liver Failure, you know, the bread and butter adult medicine stuff... but I just don't have the immediate recall and end up having to look up EVERYTHING. Kind of embarrassing as I'm a big, grown-up MS IV. Yet it seems my medical knowledge is a file cabinet that has to be opened and indexed constantly, it is not a ready to read book like I want it to be. Not yet. But I guess that's why you have to do residency... to learn what you have learned and to practice and practice.

On the bright side I love, love, love talking to my patients, explaining diagnosis, getting code status confirmed, calling consults, writing order and just generally acting like a doctor. IM-TSS is a Hospitalist run service with no residents which means the MS IVs are the acting residents. It is like a sub-I without resident support. But I love that part of it. And the taking care of my patients part. I don't love it when my patient ends up needing to be intubated and upgraded to the ICU. But he is okay and I don't think I could have done anything differently or prevented his intubation... Medicine is awesome and I am humbled daily to be reminded that this is what I get to do with my life.

Residency Fate Day countdown is underway.... 37 more wake-ups to go!

Day 2 and my (first) zebra = I heart medicine

So I'm only two days into medicine and so far I have a very interesting patient. I can't go into details because HIPPA and stuff but he's younger than I am and in multi-organ failure without a known cause. The obvious and regulars have been ruled out so now we are looking for something more exotic. Sucks for him, cool for me. He's an ICU patient and being only an MS III we are not suppose to follow ICU patient's but somehow I got him anyhow and I'm so glad I did. I actually want to be at work and am reminded of why I went into this, medicine is interesting, the human body is downright amazing and I am SO LUCKY to be living my dream.  I just hope that my patient's zebra is something reversible and/or treatable and that he will go on to live his life and I'll learn much in the process.

Yesterday was also interesting as it seems the "flavor de jour" was cocaine abuse. Maybe it was the patients tribute to Whitney's passing as my Attending postulated... but whatever it was we had no less than three admits for some type of cocaine related complication. Lesson of the day, love your heart, don't do cocaine and happy Valentine's Day.

Also the residents are great. We have noon conference and/or med student lectures pretty much every day and we get to do stuff but are still told to go home early/ go study and given minimal scut work. So all in all, I'm two days in and very happy to be here. Medicine rocks. San Francisco is great and I live in the same state as Dr. Boyfriend once again. All in all, life is good!

Anatomy of a 6 week Rotation

Week 1: excitement, meeting new people, figuring out who's who. this is going to be great.
Week 2: still excited to be in a new rotation, settled and ready to learn, call is fun.
Week 3: tired. time is going by so slowly....i can't believe i'm only half way done. call is exhausting.
Week 4: omg. am i still on this rotation? very tired. call is dreaded. did i mention tired.
Week 5: the end is near. i kind of like this rotation. i'm sad i only have two weeks left.
Week 6: exams, done. that was great! i can't believe how fast time goes by....

I'm just about done with OB/GYN. It was fine. I liked the OB part and tolerated the GYN... clinic and L&D were great. The OR, not so much.... but then again I already knew surgery wasn't for me. It was a good experience and I'm glad to have another rotation behind me.

IM is up next and while I'm ready to learn and excited to be going somewhere that I have autonomy and actually contribute to patients care I'm a little apprehensive about working 6 days a week for 3 months on the wards. But regardless I'm going. And then fourth year will be here so ready or not, here I go...

Cali is just 8 days away, so long New York!

Day Zero (aka home sweet home)

I made it! Yesterday I said goodbye to Grenada and now I'm back in the good old USA with my husband in our cozy apartment and I couldn't be happier. The tree is up (he surprised me) and lit, we plan to decorate it tonight. The weather is a 60 degrees and I'm thinking of flannel sheets and sweaters. I guess after living on a tropical island for two years this is good intro to mild California winters. The Colorado blood in me not so secretly wishes for snow at Christmas but I'll settle for being with the ones I love.

Time to unpack and contemplate studying. I have a brand new 2010 First Aid and RR Biochem not to mention some lovely new pens. I can walk to Starbucks and I get to have good wine and dinner with the love of my life tonight. Life is good. I need to reflect on the past year of medical school but for now I'm just going to enjoy being home. Happy Holidays!

Sunny California

Summer Break- Day 2. I'm here with a new West Coast address. Fourth term ended without much fanfare. Five weeks to unpack our apartment, explore a new city, see my family, go to camp, and enjoy not studying (well, maybe in moderation.) Then I'm back to Grenada for a final term. With time I'm sure I'll have something to say about Term 4 but right now I'm just enjoying my new city. It's summer break, woo hoo!