All Done!

The past two weeks have been a blur. I graduated from my residency program. My parents were here for a week-long visit. An aunt, uncle, and cousin came out for the occasion, along with my older brother and his wife. My classmates and I were roasted in appropriate fashion by the second- and first-year residents. It was a good sendoff. My last two shifts in the department were crazy-busy with very sick patients. My last shift was with my closest friend here, and after staying three hours late to finish up all of our charts, we went out to Denny's to celebrate. As I was getting home from my "4pm - midnight" shift, the sun was coming up.

Some of my classmates I was more than ready to be done working with, and some I was sad to see go. The past three years have flown by so fast that it is sometimes hard to believe how much learning and activity was crammed into them. Despite moonlighting for the past year, I am still nervous about starting my new job, learning and new system, and trying to do my best for my patients without harming them in the process. When I matched here, I wasn't certain what to expect, however I couldn't have been happier with my program. I think that the teaching has been excellent, and I couldn't have asked for better people to work with every day.

I have received my first schedule for my new job, and I am almost flabbergasted by how few hours I will be working compared to what I have been juggling lately. My written board exam is coming up in just a few months, but after that is out of the way, it looks like I might be able to have some semblance of a normal life in the very near future. After four frantic med-school years followed by three years of residency, I am not sure that I'm going to know what to do with myself!

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In regards to the house, it is pretty much sold. I met with my lawyer on Thusday and signed my end of the paperwork with the actual closing scheduled to happen sometime next week.

On Tuesday, the movers packed up the house, and loaded up the truck. Wednesday was unloading day, and the number of boxes crammed into the new place was almost overwhelming. I have been steadily unwrapping and sorting through stuff for the past three days, and only now is starting to look like an actual liveable space rather than a storage room around here.

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Happy 4th of July!

Seven

Seven shifts, that is all that remains of my residency. Part of me is eager for it to be over, and the other part is panicked about not having that safety net of an attending to run things by. There will be a new safety net--specialists to talk to on the phone, skilled nurses and physician assistants who know the in's and out's of my new hospital.

Some things I am happy to leave behind, like dictating a full note after every single patient. Others, like going out for breakfast after an overnight shift, or potlucks with the nurses I'm going to miss. As for my residency classmates, the group of us will probably never be together in the same room again. We are spreading out accross the country, and although right now everyone's promising to return for the wedding next Spring, some of these people whom I have spent so much time with, I will never see or hear from again.

Shifts are longer at my new hospital, but in return there are more days off. And despite being a "community hospital", the volume is practically the same as my current Level 1 Trauma Center. There are less specialists and no residents, which translates into me doing more procedures myself than I do here. I fully anticipate to be stressed this first year out, but it's what I want... I think. Some of my classmates are staying here where they are comfortable, and others have negotiated better contracts for less hours and less patients than I will be seeing. I tend to learn more by doing than reading about it, so I think I would rather struggle now in my career and gain experience and confidence rather than slowing down and maybe having to learn to increase my productivity later in my career.

Dentist for a Day

My vacation started with "The Phoenix's" graduation. When you graduate from medical school, you get hooded at graduation. It's not really so much of a hood as it is a velvet sash that goes around the neck. The person doing the hooding has to have a doctorate degree. There are instructors available to hood graduates, or at our school you can be hooded by a family member. "The Phoenix" and I side-stepped this little requirement by telling our school that we were cousins.

As I was flying in the night before, "The Phoenix" picked up my gown and hood. She told me the hood was purple, which I thought was a little odd as it was green last year, but then I thought maybe it had to do with my specialty or something.

All was going well enough, until an elderly gentlemen came up from behind me and started straightening my hood. "All of us dentists have to look good," he said. So that's how I found out that purple is for dentists, whereas green is for medicine. Between me not being her cousin, and not being a dentist it was quite the misrepresentation.

Her ceremony was just as long and drawn out as mine was. Our CEO (Yes, I said CEO, not president) was there, wearing her blindingly large, gold University medallion, ala Flava Flav style.

Finally, we double-checked that the name on her diploma was correct, and booked it out of there! I remember the feeling of relief that came with having that piece of paper in my hand.