A Month of Thanks

While I haven't jumped on the Facebook bandwagon of telling the world what I'm thankful for daily, it has made me think each day more and more about all the things I am thankful for and how blessed I am.  With my anesthesia rotation winding down since I have an interview taking up much of next week, today I thought about how thankful I am for preceptors that are amazing, willing teachers.  While I'm not sure if some of these physicians are getting reimbursed for the time they take to teach me, to me, it seems that they are taking on a student out of the kindness of their heart.  Most physicians that I have followed have seemed to take joy out of sharing their knowledge and experience.  Most physicians remember how it is to be a student.  Each new generation of doctors has to be trained somehow and many of my preceptors did not think they would be in a teaching environment, yet they have undertaken the task with zeal.  My favorite preceptors are the ones who challenge me to get out of my comfort zone and to think critically. They give me confidence in myself showing the confidence they have in me.  They make me want to learn all I can about their specialty.  Looking ahead, many, many years down the road, I hope I will have the same opportunity to teach the new round of soon-to-be doctors.  I want to be the type of doctor that shows the enthusiasm and love I have for this profession to my patients, co-workers, and anyone else I encounter during my practice, and more than anything, I want to be good at what I do.  And I want to deliver babies...but that's just a small part of it! :)

Looking Down the Road

In light of receiving my first residency interview, I thought I would update my blog for the first time in forever! I started this blog so that I could record my thoughts as I went through rotations, and maybe help make my decision about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  As I soon found out, that was not needed...within two days of my first OB-GYN rotation, I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing.  So here's a draft of my personal statement that I've used for my applications. I

There are a few moments in life when you may get the awe-inspiring feeling that your life is headed in the right direction; a sense of purpose urging you to take a certain path.  Most recently, that feeling happened as I was walking down the aisle toward my smiling groom, surrounded by my family and friends.  Before that, one of these remarkable moments was my first solo delivery. It was 2 weeks into my OB/GYN core clerkship and no deliveries had worked out quite well enough to allow me to deliver on my own.  I had finished checking on a patient when I ran into another attending on our service.  We started talking and he asked if I felt ready to deliver unassisted.  I jumped at the chance since I had been waiting for weeks for this opportunity.  I had witnessed many births by this point, but to be scrubbed in with the doctor observing behind me was a gratifying experience that I will never forget.  As excited as I was, it was amazing to be involved in such a joyous moment in the proud parents’ lives.

During my 3^rd year, I had the opportunity to pick many of my first rotations. I had completed my Master’s in Anatomy before medical school, and with my knowledge of the human body, I knew that whatever I would love doing would involve surgery or procedures, something very hands-on.  I rotated through Interventional Radiology, Neurosurgery, Cardiovascular Surgery, and Orthopedic Surgery, each one giving me a new set of abilities. With each rotation, my surgical skills improved and I felt more at home in the operating room. I enjoyed the immediate effect we could provide a patient with an operation, and it was amazing to see the transformation in their health.  The one thing I did not receive with these rotations was an exposure to primary care.  The interactions with patients, while rewarding, felt short and often had no reason for long-term follow up.  I decided I wanted a stronger, long-term relationship with my patients and still play an integral role in several aspects of their health.

During my first OB/GYN rotation, I found something that I had not in any rotation before: I enjoyed clinic as much as I did being in the hospital rounding on patients or in surgery. Being the only student on the service with three physicians, I was able to see many of the practice’s patients, which offered a huge range of pathology and treatment styles.  The versatility of this field astounds me, as you can be involved in a patient’s preventative health and health maintenance or treatment and recovery of illness.  Another thing that has drawn me toward OB/GYN is the opportunity to educate patients.  I have a strong background in teaching, and I’ve been told by many patients on rotations that I explain things very well.  My experiences in OB/GYN have been some of the most interesting and challenging moments of my clinical time and I look forward to being in such an exciting field.

At this moment, my goal is to practice general Obstetrics and Gynecology, although I am eager to have an in-depth exposure to many of the subspecialties.  I have a very supportive spouse, family, and group of friends, and medical school has provided me with the ability to balance my personal and professional lives well.  In addition to my surgical and communication skills, I have a friendly demeanor, strong leadership ability, dedicated work ethic, and the motivation and desire to learn.  I look forward to entering a residency program that is academically challenging, committed to teamwork and support, and driven on keeping up with the advances in patient care in the field of OB/GYN. 

6ish months later...

Goodness, I am awful about making sure I write in my blog! So, now I have almost a half a year's experience to catch up on.  The most exciting moment right now is that tomorrow is the first day to try on a wedding dress! We are definitely in planning mode now that all of the holidays are over.  I just feel like once I find my dress it will feel like everything is coming together! Now if I could just nail down a color, we'd really be getting somewhere!

Since the last time I updated the blog, I've had some of my favorite rotations.  The rotation after neurology, neurosurgery, was definitely my favorite.  The first day on the service, the doctor asked me tons of anatomy questions, which were right up my alley, so he definitely had some trust in me after that day.  From that day on I got to open and close almost every surgery and even got to do whole carpal tunnel surgeries and muscle and nerve biopsies myself, under close supervision, of course! I never expected to get to do so much on my first surgery rotation.  It is definitely one of the things I could imagine doing for the rest of my life!

After Neurosurgery, I moved on to Cardiovascular/Thoracic Surgery, which I loved! There's not many things cooler than holding a beating heart! Once I proved that I knew my way around the OR, the surgeons gave me the responsibility of suturing the leg after harvesting veins, and as I got quicker with that, I got to move up closer to the heart each day, eventually getting to help with bypass surgeries and getting to close the chest.  The heart is a part of the body I have always been fascinated with, so then again, I would love to be able to do this as a career, 9 hour surgeries and all!

I came into medical school thinking I would be an orthopedic surgeon, and after my Orthopedic Surgery rotation, I'm not so sure about that! The thing is, the part of orthopedics that I really loved, the spine surgeries, is what I got to do in Neurosurgery, and the rest felt like the exhaustion of holding limbs.  It was a very valuable rotation, especially since I got to see a range of hospitals from LeBonheur to The Med, but I was exhausted most days and of it just didn't seem to fit.

My four months in Memphis were so much fun, mainly because of my lovely cousin Christy! I had such a blast having a roommate again, and we never had a dull moment.  Christy was on a pretty strict diet and didn't keep bad stuff in the house, so it was a lot easier to lose weight down there, and a 24 hour gym didn't hurt! Total I am up to a 29 pound loss, which is much less than I hoped to be by this point, but I still have time! I'm in Hopkinsville now, and they have given the students a free YMCA membership, so it's definitely crunch time!!!