Above: Michigan Avenue in Chicago has to be one of my favorite streets of all time. September 2010.IN JANUARY 2011,
WE'RE TRULY HITTING THE ROAD.
Is this something I'm truly excited about? Yes.
With me finishing up psychiatry (roundup ahead), I have two big cores left, OB/GYN and Surgery. Both are at St. Anthony Hospital in Chicago and I begin the OB half this upcoming Monday.
Now that all the bugs have been smoothed out (they were kinked for a little bit), I can tell you that I'm going on an amazing road trip. In May of this year, I went on a road trip that was independent of medicine, just to explore life without limits, and not to be a medical student for a little while. However, beginning in January, I'll be going on the road to do several rotations away from home. It's my time to explore where I might do residencies, different places to work, and even experience what it is to live in a city that's not my own.
(Please don't get me wrong, I love my hometown, the Windy City, to death. I'm just an explorer at heart.)
My current remaining schedule looks like this:
November 2010 - Obstetrics & Gynecology Core at St. Anthony Hospital, Chicago, IL
January 2011 - Family Practice Sub-Internship at Decatur Memorial Hospital, Decatur, IL.
February 2011 - Internal Medicine Sub-Internship at Wilson Medical Center, Johnson City, NY.
March 2011 - Intensive Care Unit at Grant Medical Center, Columbus, OH.
1 week break to take the ever-so-important Step 2 CS on April 1, 2011.
April 2011 - Surgery Core at St. Anthony Hospital, Chicago, IL
Planning 4 week break to take the also very-important Step 2 CK in July 2011.
After then, we're back to an abyss as to what to expect after then. I have about 16 weeks of electives remaining to schedule, as to what they are, we'll see as I have a series of sites I'm looking into and will be putting in my reservations for them soon...
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And now approaching 12,000 miles, I have ended psych. The doctor I round with in the morning and I have seen many things we never have expected to see, everything from people saying that they were "poisoned" to people who have ended up with more money in their pocket after dying. I even met someone from Bedrock (ever Meet the Flinstones?). And as crazy as these stories may seem to some people, doing a psych rotation really has put new perspective on how to look at these patients. To me, with each interview, I was getting onto a roll of taking each interview as a conversation I'd have with someone over breakfast or a cup of coffee. Each patient (from the elderly with dementia to the teenager with schizophrenia) presented with a new challenge, which was something I always welcomed. That's the way I learn: through my challenges.
Although my career interests currently don't involve psychiatry, I value now being able to see how the skills that psychiatric interviewers use to talk to their patients can be used in any setting, and it certainly helps in making any doctor's job easier. Thanks psych for a wonderful six weeks, I loved every moment of it.
So now I'm now a Fourth-Year student (by numbers of weeks of rotations)... If this past year came that fast, well... the next year is going to fly.
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