WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!?!?

It’s been almost two months since my last blog. What the heck?!?!?

I spent the entire month of March on a surgery rotation and am now one week shy of completing my Ob/GYN month. I could cook up some nice and entertaining stories about my experiences, but I've got too much catching up to do! ( I still might, though my imagination often takes me to a place where I’ve unintentionally violated HIPPA as the people I am talking about stumble upon my openly public blog, placing all of my painstaking, debt-laden efforts over the past few years in jeopardy. I’ve just got to make sure that enough time has passed to eliminate such worries, all while making sure I remember the stories…)

I often think about blogging and then don’t know where to start because so much time has passed, and the thought also quickly dissolves once I think about the brain power and time that it would take to catch up. I guess it would be more feasible if my blogs weren’t so long-winded, huh? I’m working on trying to take more pictures so I will have to type less, and I just found our long-lost camera under the passenger seat in my car today so there's hope. If you consider the trends, though, it's not looking too good...

So...here’s my attempt at catching up:

Jerm has a new job that seems to be going well. From what I am hearing, the environment is very laid-back and very much aligned with his personal approach to things. Other than this, he has been playing a boatload of basketball and doing lots of outdoor watercolor sketching in his spare time*.

Core really hasn’t been as bad as I imagined it would be. The long work hours aren’t the best and most preferred, but it is manageable with a few days off every once in a while. The “pimping” hasn’t been that bad either. I am the type of person that I either know something or I don’t (a lot more of the latter… just kidding if you are considering me as your future physician!), so I attempt an answer or I say “I don’t know.” Most residents and attendings don’t make us students feel too stupid for not knowing something. After all, question sessions are great ways of learning when they are on-the-spot and in front of a peer group. I guess when I put it that way, though, I could also include that they are good for confirming sweat-gland functioning and proving that any amount of deodorant is entirely too little.

At this point, the most prominent issues on the forefront in my life are board examinations that are coming up in a few months, and the fact that I am going to have to start getting in-gear and figure out what the heck I want to do with my life so I can apply for residency. As much as I hate to admit it, this crap stresses me out to-the-max. And, though I’m not sure if anyone is, I definitely am not a big fan of stress.

I think I’ve narrowed my specialty choices to two, but I’ve got a little more soul-searching and experiencing to do before I fully decide. I am learning that there are pros and cons to every specialty and am questioning if my perception of a specialty now will change once Jeremy and I have a family. This is a HUGE factor for me.

And this is a whole different blog in itself that I may or may not have time to write, but it won’t be now because – what you don’t know -- is that I am actually at the hospital working an overnight shift and my pager just went off.

Have I mentioned that Labor & Delivery is the most disgusting and beautiful thing ever?

I believe that I have.


*Just kidding about that watercolor sketching part.