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I am feeling as if I need to write but I'm not sure if I have anything to say, profound or otherwise... Third year is officially over. I'm in limbo land as I study/take Step 2 and then move back to New York to start fourth year electives. Most of my schedule is figured out but I'm still waiting on out of network Peds stuff. (Note to fellow SGU students that are contemplating out of network rotations: allow the school at least 8 weeks 3 months to get your paperwork together and signed off on and submitted, it does take that much time!)

It is kind of nice to be back to studying again. Of course I studied while in my core rotations but it is different to wake up and have the entire day to study whatever you want (or need) to in any order or place you desire. And of course I love being back at "home" with Dr. Boyfriend and have been not 100% focused on studying as I had jury duty for two days and then dentist appt, etc. All the stuff you don't have time to take care of when you are flying around the USA for a year kind of adds up. But home is good. Schedule, or lack there of is good. Life is good.

In any case... I have to get back to studying. Happy Wednesday!

P.S. Here's a nice neuro article for any of you thinking of going into neurology. I thought it was an interesting read. Of course child neurology is a bit different but the sentiments are the same.

2:15am

And of course, I'm wide awake. Hello insomnia, you really aren't a friend of mine. May as well blog a little, not anything else going on in the middle if the night. Tomorrow is my last long call/admit day for Medicine. Wednesday is post call and my oral exam. And then I'm down with third year. Kind of crazy how fast it went. Seems just like yesterday when I was standing in the OR and pondering how little I knew. Now I'm almost a real big grown up MS IV. The plan? Napa first and foremost. See family. Drive South. See more family. Settle and study for Step 2. Head to New York. Do a peds sub-I... somewhere, this part is difficult to schedule. But sub-I. Somewhere. Get amazing letter. Head back to Cali. Do some medicine electives. Apply for residency. Yada, yada... Anyhow, it's all good. Napa is in sight, just two days to go... Cheers!

swimming pools and spoons

Sometimes you just need a swimming pool. They are doing construction on the hospital and I snapped this picture on my way in today.

The pools were filled with gravel and dirt and I have no idea where they are taking these... You would think they there would be a more sophisticated way to move around the excess dirt and gravel but the plastic pools seemed to be doing the job.

Which reminds me of the spoons, way back in my first rotation, during Neurosurgery. Let me explain. If a patient had a subarachnoid hemorrhage and we needed to remove the clotted blood from the brain we used... a spoon. Again you'd think there would be some tool or special device made for such a procedure but if there is I have no idea what it looks like because we always used spoons. Just plain, regular tea spoons.

This post has no real purpose I don't have anything profound to say. I'm just reflecting on simple things that somehow get the job done. I'm 10 days away from being done with third year and I just emailed my final patient write-up to my preceptor. It feels good.

Now if you excuse me I'm going to enjoy a glass of wine and ponder the simple things in life. Like swimming pools and spoons.

Happy Easter- links

Happy Easter.  Happy Passover. Or simply Happy Spring, whatever you may or may not be celebrating I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Here are just some links for the day from my early morning reading before I head to the hospital in my Easter socks. The Easter egg hunt and decorating has been postponed to next weekend when Dr. Boyfriend will be visiting (and also it will be Greek Easter then.)

-A "Good Friday" post  on death, but beautiful all the same. Grady Doctor often makes me cry.

-Reflecting on my non-zebra patient and wondering if/when he'll get his kidney. Here is a story of love and hope. 

-Call for all of us to do our part and fight childhood obesity. That means you, dad/dude!

missing you

I don't know if its the ho-hum of rotations (8 weeks into IM) or the fact that I'm away from truly good friends for so long but I've been missing Grenada lately. I miss the warm breeze and the chance to go swimming in clear blue 80 degree water. I miss my friends on Friday nights when we would chat over a bottle of wine about our week and our plans after Grenada. I miss the study breaks and the ability to go kayaking on a random Tuesday morning before class. I miss the island time lifestyle and all the awesome Grenadian people. I miss Prickly Bay Pizza and I miss my path group. I've taken to wearing my Path Group NOS scrub tops to the hospital lately... I just miss it all.

I don't miss being an MS I or MS II (being and MS III, almost IV is much better) but I do miss the people and island and good times.

I randomly started talking to one of my favorite clinical assistants at the hospital yesterday. He was born in Mexico City and was telling me how beautiful his home country is and how I should go on vacation there... (and I'm sure he is right) but all I could think was, I'd rather go back to Grenada!

I do like California and where I am and what I'm doing. But it would be super nice to be sitting on the beach looking at St. George's with a good friend calling me to join her for a swim in the warm, sun-kissed aqua water....

Happy Friday!