Nov - May, end of 3rd year!

Six months later and here I am finally blogging again… Back in November I had completed the first 4 rotations of my third year of school. For my only ‘elective’ of the year I was really hoping for an orthopaedic rotation so I could see if actually liked what I was planning to do for the rest of my life, but unfortunately I didn’t get the rotation I wanted. So, I went ahead and started an orthopaedic research project. Although I had four weeks to work on it, research is a slow process and I’m still not done with it. It is especially hard to find time to work on it now that I’m back in other rotations, but I’m still hoping to complete it before applying for residency.

During November, Ryan and I went to spend Thanksgiving with his brother and sister-in-law, Kyle and Sarah, in Austin, TX. The weekend included watching lots of football, eating lots of food, and drinking lots of beer (including Kyle’s homemade beer). Austin is such a beautiful place; it was a nice break from the rainy Portland weather.

Speaking of Portland weather… this leads me to December. The month started with all kinds of holiday festivities. There were multiple parties to attend, cookies to bake, and kitties to dress up in holiday outfits. In addition to that, there were many days of snow!!! This was frustrating and annoying for most, but considering I was working on research from home I was happy to have the snow! Gabe and Mia were in town (unfortunately they got snowed in!) and helped the family celebrate the holiday season.

In the midst of the snow I escaped to Hawaii with my mom, Pete, Grandpa and Grandma. I was loving the sun, but missing Ryan… luckily he had plotted with my family to come and surprise me!!! We had a wonderful time being lazy on the beaches, reading books, drinking daiquiris, and playing Scrabble. It all ended too soon and I was back to Portland to start a very demanding 10 weeks… my Internal Medicine rotation.

I spent the first 5 weeks at OHSU and the second 5 weeks at the VA. Every 5^th night I stayed up all night writing a 6-10 page paper about a patient I admitted. Most days I started around 7am and ended any time between 4 and 7. The hours weren’t bad, but I only got one day off a week and being on call every 5^th day made me quite tired. The learning curve was very steep, but I came out 10 weeks later feeling so much smarter. The rotation was also difficult because I had many patients die… this was a new experience for me and quite taxing. Some of these patients were elderly and had been battling chronic diseases for a long time. However, some of these were young (my age!) and healthy up until the point when they got sick with whatever eventually took their life. It was an emotional rollercoaster, but made me grateful for my health and the health of everyone in my life. The test at the end of the rotation was difficult and I didn’t do very well… luckily, the evaluations from my attendings and residents were good enough to help me pull through with an Honors grade.

During my Medicine rotation, I celebrated my 26^th birthday just the way I wanted… reality TV, a good dinner (made by Ryan), Scrabble, champagne and ice cream!

My next rotation was OB/Gyn. I knew it would be one of the most difficult rotations of the year (up with surgery and medicine) and I wasn’t looking forward to it. Surprisingly, I found that I loved it! I didn’t realize how much surgery gynecologists get to do. I spent 2 weeks doing benign gynecology (a surgical service dealing with cysts, hysterectomies, pap smears, etc). I spent 1 week on the antepartum service which meant taking care of pregnant women both in and out of the hospital. The last 2 weeks were Labor and Delivery; 1 week of day shifts and 1 week of night shifts. I started to think that maybe I could do this for a living, but after to L&D I was sure that I needed to give it some serious thought. This has actually caused me to stress quite a bit because I have spent so many years preparing for orthopaedics and now, just a few months before I have to decide for sure, don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I have scheduled my 4^th year so that I will do an orthopaedic rotation first and hopefully then be able to decide which path I will take. After that I will either commit to a 4^th year schedule for ortho or for ob/gyn. I’m very nervous to make this decision, but am confident that I have set myself to successfully apply to either specialty come next fall. I’m also sure that I will love being doctor and could probably be happy in many different fields.

As for my current rotation (and last one of my 3^rd year)… I’m spending 5 weeks in Milton-Freewater on my rural rotation. MF is in Oregon, just across the state border from Walla Walla, WA. I actually have some family (Aunt Sue, Uncle Les, and Cousin Kayla) who live in MF which is making my time here much better. The school has paid for me to stay in a bed and breakfast while I’m here; I’m living with the owners Mick and Michelle and their 2 sons, Harry (6) and Arden (1). I’m working with a Family Medicine doc, Dr. Fry. So far the medical care is fun and exciting, mostly because the primary care doctor has to take care of most things as there aren’t as many specialists available for referral. Ryan was able to come for my first weekend here and we were able to join in the festivities of Spring Release Weekend; this is when all the wineries in the area release their new wines!!! We had a great weekend, but I was sad to see him go. I’m also looking forward to Memorial Day weekend when Ryan and I will travel to Sunriver with my dad and Christie for a few days. Then… I’LL BE A 4^TH YEAR STUDENT!

Now for my favorite topic… KITTIES!!! Colbie and Zane are loving life and really loving Spring because all the birdies are outside the windows. Their new favorite activity is going onto our deck and trying to eat bugs and leaves. I’m trying to get them used to their leashes, but that may take some more practice. Zane is getting pretty big… at least 4-5 lbs more than Colbie. Zane is talkative and likes to cause trouble. Colbie is still shy and crazily in love with shiny objects that reflect lights on the wall. They are crazy kitties, but they are our babies and we love them so much!