Oh how time flies when.....

Time seems to be flying by rather quickly these days. One minute you are starting medical school and the next minute you are over halfway done! Third year of medical school is really what medicine is all about. I feel like this is my job - like I get up everyday to come to my place of work and work really hard all day and then get home and work really hard when I get home.

I started my 3rd year of medical school with my internal medicine rotation. It is 10 weeks long. I spent the first 4 weeks doing hospital inpatient care. We took care of many sick patients. As students, we had to take overnight in house call. I would get to the hospital by 7am one day and not leave until the next day at 1 pm! Talk about a long time to be up and trying function like a normal person. On my second call, I saw a patient code and another patient need a rapid response. Basically, both are really bad. Luckily, both patients survived. However, at this point, I realized how real this whole situation is and how serious caring for patients while the are in the hospital is. During the 10 weeks I also spend 2 weeks at an outpatient medicine clinic and 2 weeks doing nephrology. At the end of each rotation, we have a big standardized exam and then move on to the next rotation.

Next, I spent 10 weeks in surgery. I got 1 week in colorectal, trauma, orthopedics, ENT, cardiothoracic, and urology. Then we had 2 weeks on general surgery. It was an amazing experience to be involved in the care of patients before, during, and after surgery. I had fun getting to know the rules of the OR, how to scrub, and how to suture. I saw a lot of variety of things including: open heart surgery, knee replacements, bowel resections, burn victims, tonsillectomies, rhinoplasty, prostate removal, lumpectomy, appendectomy, and gallbladder removal (to name a few!). I enjoyed my time on surgery, however, it was extremely tiring and there were very long hours. I usually arrived to the hospital between 5 and 5:30am and often would not leave until after 6pm. Many many many days passed where I did not see the sun at all!!!! Overall, it was a rewarding experience.

My next rotation was Ob/Gyn. I spent 3 week on obstetrics watching/assisting with babies being born and C-sections. This was a crazy experience! Then I spent 3 weeks on gynecology where we did a lot of annual exams, hysterectomies, and urogyne surgeries. This was a very interesting experience, however, I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Now, to present day. I sit here now in my on-call room during my peds rotation. Today is our 3rd day on inpatient service. So far it has been a lot of fun. I get to spend 3 weeks on inpatient service and 3 weeks on outpatient/clinic service. I am busy studying everything peds, trying to keep up "House", "American Idol", and "The Bachelor" between busy days and studying and also try to make it to the gym as much as possible.

Third year of medical school is very hands on training. It has been an experience to realize what life as a resident/attending will be like someday and trying to learn as much as possible until I get to that point. Somedays are hard - I fell tired, overworked, sleep deprived, stressed out, sad that patients get sick and die.....and I wonder why I ever decided to become a doctor. Other days days are fun - I feel like I have learned so much, like I can help people, like I made a difference in the care they received, and feel satisfied with the mental and physical challenges come along with this year and that this occupation bring.....and I know I made the right decision. As Dr. Constance says, you must "find your tribe." Each day I feel like I am coming closer to finding my tribe and deciding what kind of a physician I want to be in the future. Each day I use the motivation and excellent example that my dad and Bill have set and am motivated to work harder and rise to meet the challenges that are before me. I feel really lucky to have them as inspirations and also have the love and support of my mom and wonderful friends.