3 weeks and 2 days left!

Who would have thought that surgery would fly by as much as it has!? It's crazy that I only have 2 more days of colorectal and then 3 final weeks on vascular! No joke, I think I'm going to miss it a little. The OR keeps growing on me. Even doing simple bed side procedures are more and more enjoyable....but still no way I would want to do 5+ years of surgery residency! I think a lot of it has to do with how great the residents are. I don't know if i've just been lucky or what the deal is but the residents I've gotten to work with have all been amazing. They're always there to teach and have fun doing whatever we are up to. I never feel pressured or over worked. I really couldn't as for a better experience, especially given that coming into surgery I thought I would hate it for sure.

Noxolo

Who would have thought...

Kind of shocking, but 5 weeks of surgery are done...7 to go! I still really don't like the long hours we have as students...heck, the residents and attendings are at the hospital more than we are....but then again I think they're crazy so yah.

To be honest, I kind of really like surgery now. Not so much rounds/consults, but the OR is a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Maybe it's because I get to do more than I thought I would and actually feel like I can be of some help.

Favorite OR Quotes:

"Surgery is a contact sport"

"hold it like you mean it"

"boo"


Noxolo

Scratch that...

Week 2 is done...officially 1/6 of the way done with surg andddd the next 10 weeks can't go by fast enough. I really don't know why anyone would choose to live at the hospital like general surgeons do. I'm there generally 5am-5pm and I know the residents are there longer than I am for the most part....sounds like no life and no fun to me. The OR is still a lot of fun, but I miss the medical management that was integral in IM.

Oh well. At least it's cooled down, the trees have changed and football is in full swing....give me something to look forward to when I'm not at the hospital and not sleeping...

noxolo

Maybe surgery isn't sooo bad after all....

My first week of surgery is officially in the books....only 11 more weeks and 3 weekend calls to go!

Overall, surgery is a lot better than I thought it would be, but there is still no way i'd want to pursue it. The OR is a lot of fun and definitely the highlight of the rotation, but I don't love it enough to give up patient care....plus the hours suck. So far I've scrubbed in on 3 cases which have all been unique in their own way. One was a Lap distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy, one thyroidectomy and one ventral hernia repair. It's been interesting bringing back all my anatomy and actually applying it. I think surgery is the one place that you actually need to know where something should be, but also where else it could be.

One bad thing about surgery is that when I get home the absolute LAST thing i want to do is study. Sooo I'm finding it hard to get a chance to do anything more than read up on what ever case I may scrub. I guess that's what weekends are for?

Noxolo

Bang bang

The other day on living social they had a deal for target shooting for an hour for 2 people at a place in Livonia. Since my roommate has NEVER shot a gun, and we dooo live in the D, I figured it would be a good experience. We get an hour of range time, ear/eye protection, targets, two 9mm's and ammo...all for $28! I'm not sure when we'll go since I start surgery tomorrow...but hopefully sooner than later! I went to a different range about a month ago now, tons of fun! (If that's what you're into I guess)

In other news....MN football is somehow 4-0!? Pretty sure that hasn't happened since I was back in undergrad..which feels like forever ago. I might have to see if they play out here this season and get some tickets.

Cheers

IM...done!

So, my first rotation of 3rd year is done! I took the internal medicine shelf this morning and pending some sort of catastrophe on thattttt I am done with IM. It's pretty bitter sweet. I really enjoyed IM and have all but decided that is the route I want to take for residency! I still need to do a sub-I and a few electives to further solidify, but that's the way it's looking as of now.

Up next, surgery....welp. We'll see...it's going to be a longgg 3 months. The hours are looking like 5am-5pm, plus Q6 call.

In other news....I recently got a Keurig! It's pretty darn amazing. The chai latte, coffee and tea are all really good.

It's weird to have a free weekend...it has been a while. We'll see if I get anything done, might just need to relax.

As for the IM shelf...I really dislike when you take tests and about half way through you realize there was no good way to study for it. I did quite a bit of studying for IM...between step up to medicine, kaplan lecture notes, UW and USMLE Rx....I put in a few hours to say the least. However, there were still tons of Qs on there that were simply out of left field. I guess we'll see when scores come back in a few weeks.

Noxolo

and it continues...

So I guess it's been a little bit since I updated....in all fairness I've been kept pretty busy!

Lets see...as of now I have 2 more weeks of IM left! I started on a new team this month and it's crazy how different teams can be. It's still a ton of fun and I learn a lot, but it's just different. Here are a couple of pictures from last months team. Our attending was really nice and took us out to lunch on one of our last days.

Coming up in 2 weeks I also have the IM shelf which will be a little weird. It'll be the first test i've taken since step 1 a little over 6 months ago...crazy!

As for now, back to studying and trying to stay sane! At least football started and the weather is cooling down!

Noxolo