Med School Update and Augusta Half Marathon

Well here is the update...I am done with Internal Medicine (at least for this year). I start Neurosurgery tomorrow. So last month I was at Fort Gordon doing general medicine and overall it went very well. I am about 99% certain that I will be going into Internal Medicine and I am still pretty sure that I will be subspecializing after that but I don't have to make that decision for another 3 or 4 years. So that is exciting, I was hoping that by the end of 8 weeks I would like internal medicine more than when I started. Now I have 8 weeks of surgery before 2 weeks Christmas break. I am sure there will be some interesting stories from surgery, now I just hope I will have the energy to write about them. I really can't say that I am excited about getting up before 4 am and working 80 hours per week but we will see how it goes.

As for the pictures below, this morning I ran the Augusta half marathon and due to my hectic work schedule lately I have not been running nearly enough. So this morning was interesting...
This is right near the finish line and I really had my teeth gritted hard just trying to finish with a respectable time. My only previous half marathon was last Thanksgiving and I ran that in 1 hour and 55 minutes. Well, today my time was 1 hour and 53 minutes. A new PR! Not too bad for so little training.

Here are my little cheerleaders! Christie brought the puppies along and they had a good time and were excited to see me when I got to the finish line.

Stretching out my legs, I think my smile is so big because I am just glad to be done. I am still in pain right now sitting on the couch writing this blog.

The whole family, sorry for the dog butts, they are not that attentive, just too many things to sniff and pee on.

Update

So, this week is wrapping up which means Heme/Onc month is almost over. It sure did go by quickly! Overall, a great experience and maybe a little bit of encouragement for the future. I would say my evaluation at this point is the following:
Chance of declaring internal medicine as my advising department this December: 95%
Chance of going into internal medicine residency: 90%
Chance of doing Heme/Onc fellowship: 70%
We will see if these numbers stay the same after next month where I will be doing general internal medicine at Fort Gordon (military base in town). I have had some really great patients this month and some pretty decent people to work with. Hopefully next month will continue to be encouraging and my desire to go into internal medicine will reach 100%. I will give you all the updates next month.
On another note, today is Wednesday, which means Christie is officially 22 weeks along. Pretty cool, past the halfway mark a couple weeks ago and now she just keeps growing and we have a name. Peyton Reese is her name. Pretty amazing I am writing it for the first time that my daughter's name will be Peyton Reese, only about 4 months left!!! So excited! Miss everyone who reads this, even though I think at this point it is only my mom.

Every day is a new adventure

So here is the update: Neurology is done, for good. I have decided I will not become a neurologist. On to the next thing. I am in Hematology/Oncology this month. So far so good. I am 1 week in out of 4 and I am still excited about going to work. I guess that is a good sign. Honestly from the beginning of 3rd year I have been looking forward to this month. I am praying hard that this month goes well. I don't think it is coincidence that our church is doing their annual month of prayer and fasting for God to move in big ways. Everyone is encouraged to participate and see God move in their lives and in the lives around them. Before you think that I haven't eaten yet this week let me clarify. Fasting doesn't always mean abstaining from food all together. Fasting can be abstaining from anything in your life that you enjoy or is a part of your everyday routine that will allow you to be reminded to pray, and seek God to move or direct you in life. Last year I did not participate but this year Christie and I are fasting sweets. It may seem small but it is amazing the temptations that arise when you are avoiding it. Just on Friday there were 3 events at work with cookies, brownies, cakes, and donuts. I did not partake even though my sweet tooth tugged hard at me. I am praying this month that God helps me with my direction for my future career and I think this is a great opportunity while I am in the rotation that I am most excited about. Hope everyone who reads these posts are doing well and is excited about fall which is just a couple of weeks away. I know we are here in the furnace of Augusta, can't wait to enjoy a cool breeze with a cup of coffee in my hand. God bless till next time...

Update

It's a girl! Wow, what a surprise that was to some (Christie). I really didn't have a feeling one way or another. But now that we know we are super excited. Just past the 16 week mark, which means less than 5 months to go! What an adventure this is, Christie is being a pathological shopper and the name discussion is ongoing. Keep a look out on the baby blog, 16 week pictures will probably make it on there this weekend.
As for neurology, I am halfway done and so far so good. I have had some really great attendings that have made for a great experience. Who knows, maybe I was born to be a neurologist...

Neurology

Well, neurology is better that psychiatry! I am finally getting to do some tests and use my brain in my new rotation. Only 3 days in, there is a whole lot more to learn but so far I am having a really good time and it is amazing how fast I am getting comfortable talking with patients and learning how to get all the information necessary to hopefully help them. All this month I am hoping to get comfortable and prepared for next month. I am really excited to be rotating in Hematology/ Oncology next month. Keep me in your thoughts, I really hope that will be my future career so fingers crossed that everything goes well. I will update more when I have some good stories. Just another update, the baby is the size of an orange now and we are hopefully going to find out boy or girl next friday! Can't wait!

Cross Psych off the list

Well one rotation is behind me. I guess first I should start by saying Step 1 board exam is behind me. I got my score back and thank God I passed. I would have liked a better score but I am really happy I never have to do that again. I have never had an anxiety attack but I was awfully close when I was loading my score report. I started Psychiatry at the beginning of July but it never really felt as though I was a third year student until 3 weeks in when I found out I passed step 1. Then a short week and a half has passed and now I am enjoying my weekend off before going on to Neurology. I titled this post "cross psych off the list" because 1 down, 9 rotations to go till 3rd year is over but also because I can officially say now that I will not be pursuing Psychiatry as a career profession. Overall I had a good experience and it was a good rotation to adjust to the new schedule of 3rd year but not my cup of tea. I never felt like it was the field where I would be looking forward to going to work each day. It just felt too much like a 9-5 job that I was not passionate about. I had some really interesting patients don't get me wrong. I had multiple patients with schizophrenia and it was so unpredictable how they would be each day. One day they loved me, other days I was insulted, cursed at and told to leave. It was my first opportunity to really "feel like a doctor" and being at the psych unit in the VA, most of my patients called me doc anyway (they didn't know the difference). All the hard work I put in during my first two years is being applied now and even though I have yet to really feel like I have helped someone I think that day won't be far off. Well now I get the weekend to catch up with Christie and enjoy some time together. She is not showing yet but is just past 14 weeks and I would expect her to start showing any day now. The "little bean" is no longer a bean but now about the size of a lemon. Should only be 2 weeks before we know if the "lemon" is a boy or a girl. Super exciting! I know I was planning on keeping this blog updated more frequently but I have been really bad about it so here's hoping I get better. Maybe neurology will give me something more interesting to post about.

The New Me

Normally a hair cut wouldn't make the blog but if you have seen the hair recently this was drastic. I flirted with the idea of growing a ponytail but in the end, it got buzzed. I think I am going to keep it like this for a while, low maintenance, and much cooler.
On another note, only 5 days until my board exam so please keep me in your prayers. I am well prepared so just pray that I am relaxed and focused on test day. 5 days till I get 3 full days of freedom! I can't wait!

Baby on the Way!

Well, I got one past the goalie! Christie is about 6-7 weeks along and this is "it's" official first picture. See that little arrow? .38 cm long. Pretty amazing and watching a little heart beat on the screen was even more amazing. Crazy that in 7 1/2 months that thing is going to come out as a baby. I am super excited and it sure is hard to hold off from telling everyone but we are going to give it a few weeks before it's "facebook official". Pretty exciting!!! Many more updates to come...

Vacation at HHI

I have officially started studying for the step 1 board exam now but before I got started, Christie and I went to Hilton Head for a week to forget about school, work and everything else. It was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed every bit of being there. One of our favorite things to do is to ride the beach cruiser bikes to a restaurant for breakfast. I couldn't count how many times I said that I would love to live somewhere that we could do this and not be on vacation. It is just so relaxing and enjoyable. Here's hoping that our next city will love bikes as much as we do.

Of course, what beach vacation is complete without some time on the beach. Unfortunately, in years past the sun and I have not had the best relationship. I have been stubborn about using sunscreen and usually end up with a painful burn... well not this year! Check out my new digs (above), that tent was great and I used sunscreen. After staring at pictures of melanomas all year I decided I didn't want to end up an example on a medical school powerpoint slide, so I am now a religious sunscreen user. I was able to stay on the beach for hours under my little tent and read my book and drink my Coronas. I read "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall this week and I will not turn this blog into a book review forum but, what a great book! It was an easy read and really enjoyable, I highly recommend it even if you are not a die hard runner. All in all it was a great trip and boy was it hard to pack up the car and leave, but duty calls. On to the board review books, wish me luck!

First Adventure in Rotations

I know this seems like I am jumping the gun, but today was my first real experience in what the next two years of medical school will be like. For those who don't know, tomorrow is my official last day of my second year of medical school. Then I have about a month and a half of studying before I take the Step 1 board exam. Then, on to third year! Wow, time sure does fly by! Today we shadowed on the medical service that we are going to start rotating on in July to get a feel for our role in the clinics. My first rotation... Psych. Not my favorite but I think I will learn a lot about people on that rotation.
I shadowed in child psych today and it was quite an experience. I was thinking lots of kids with ADHD, maybe family problems but that was the least of our patients concerns. We had psychoses, aggression, self-injury, too many disorders to name. It was truly sad and somewhat tough to deal with. But we are here to do what we can to help these patients who in a lot of cases tell you that they don't even have hope that things will get better. This is the beginning of what will probably be a very interesting and challenging year in med school. I am sure there will be many more stories to come...

Family

For those of you who don't know everyone in the picture this is Alex (Christie's cousin), Michael (Christie's brother), Christie and of course, me. Alex has been working in missions down in Argentina for the whole year and he came back to be at his mom's wedding. What an awesome guy! Most of why I posted this (other than because it is just a good picture), is because Christie and I are so lucky. As we were driving home last weekend we were talking about how fortunate we were to still have our families together. Of course, I am talking about immediate families here. Even though I know that my parents and my in-laws have had their marital troubles they have weathered storms TOGETHER! I feel really grateful to have that example in a day where 1 out of every 2 marriages don't make it.
I am super happy for Christie's aunt who got remarried and am not writing this in a negative light at all. I just know that we are fortunate. Congrats to my parents who celebrated 30 years last year, my in-laws who are celebrating 30 this year and my grandparents have been married OVER 60 years. Christie and I will celebrate 5 at the end of this year. I sure hope the next 60 years for us will be as great as the first 5.

Instead of studying...

Christie won a radio drawing and got two tickets to the Carrie Underwood concert in Augusta. Even though I am not the biggest country fan Christie still invited me (how sweet). I sure am happy I went. Christie and I had a great evening and the show was great! The meet and greet passes were super cool. She is tiny, I felt like I was going to break her hand when I shook it. It was funny, right after the first song she sang, a guy sitting in the group of people behind us said, "You know I always thought she was overrated but man, that girl can sing!" I was very impressed with her talent and the show was very entertaining. Christie and I agreed that she sounded better in person than on the CDs, how many artists can you say that about these days?
The reason I titled this entry, "Instead of studying" was because I had an exam the day after the concert. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to have fun with Christie and go see a concert I bought a 5 hour energy drink and stayed up all night after the concert. 5 hour energy is actually 4 hour energy. I crashed at 4 am. But I managed to pull it together and made it to the exam and did fine. That afternoon I fell asleep while talking to my mom on the phone (sorry mom :) I guess I had used up all I had in the tank. It was worth it!

MedWAR 2010

MedWAR 2010, we finished 1st, in 5 hours and 30 minutes. In fact, so fast there was no one at the finish line to cheer us in because no one expected anyone to finish for another 20 minutes. After 15 miles of running, 4.5 miles of Mtn biking, about 2 miles of canoeing and numerous medical senarios and questions we were burning down the competition. Fun as it was I think I would be better fit for a regular adventure race sans medical senarios and questions. After it was all said and done we finished 4th in the standings because we missed too many questions, how deflating. Way to go team, I still think crossing the finish line 1st is a bigger accomplishment than knowing random facts about medicinal plants and poisonous sea creatures. Oh well, I know that to be competitive in adventure racing I need to keep training, so back to the grind...

Softball

It is softball time again and this year I played with some classmates from MCG and I am also playing mens church league. My one distraction from studying and a chance to get out and enjoy some fresh air after a day of sitting in my office.

Inspiration in Oregon

While on Spring Break last week, Christie and I traveled to Oregon to visit Mom and Pop. As a runner and avid reader of Trailrunner magazine I knew that Hal Koerner owns Rogue Valley Runners in Ashland, OR. Well of course I had to stop in and just my luck, he was in the store. A super nice guy and Christie got a picture. He runs (and wins) 26, 50, 62, and 100 mile trail runs and he is my height and weight. There is hope for me. Time to strap on the shoes...

The New Blog

So this is the new blog. I hope that I will be able to write on a somewhat regular basis and keep up with all that life has in store. This will most likely have fewer pictures than the family blog that we will continue to keep up with. I am not sure that there are all that many people who are interested in my mundane life but here's hoping I can entertain or inspire someone.