Out Rotation #1

I know that I am super behind on my blog and I apologize profusely to all my readers! I am now back to get caught up, and to announce the news that I have decided to make some additional changes to this site! I am making more format changes, but the most exciting of all is that I am adding my husband to the site as an author!! He has always had contributions (as noted by the different color of font), but they will be completely under his name now! He may be posting on a regular basis or just a few posts here and there; it all depends on his schedule! So, this site will no longer be the medical student wife's rantings and ravings, but the medical side as well!! Please continue to enjoy and come back for more!!

Now, on to out rotations!! The first out rotation that my hubby did was during the month of August in Portland, Oregon. You can find his point of view below, but from my point of view . . . it was DANG HARD!! We had just had our second child at the beginning of July. When he left for the rotation, our baby was only 3 1/2 weeks old. It also happened to be during the month he was gone that our older son decided to quit taking naps! I was not getting a lot of sleep, I did not have family around to help, and I was very, very tired. I did finally have a bit of a breakdown with about one week left. I was in complete and utter tears, I was worried that my poor kids were not getting the attention that they deserved from a mother, and I felt that I was just barely getting by. Despite the chaos of the month, I did survive, partly due to my fellow MSW's that helped to support me along the way and check in on me every now and then. I owe them a big thank you, more than I can ever repay!! I can now look back on that month and I am proud of the accomplishment of doing it all on my own. I have always considered myself to be an independent woman, but it was a rather different story considering the circumstances! We made it!! And, I firmly believe that if we can survive that month, we can survive ANTHING!! Afterall, during internship, my husband will at least be sleeping in the same house though we may not see him as often. He will not be thousands of miles away!! Just knowing that he will be there is more encouraging to me than I ever thought it would be!! I am still nervous about the next couple of years, but I am also empowered and believe that we can definitely make it through!! Now, enough about me . . . on to my hubby's perspective!!

I spent the month of August in Portland, Oregon doing an elective rotation through the anesthesia department at Oregon Health and Sciences University. It was an amazing experience and I enjoyed the rotation a ton. I learned a lot on the rotation and had a lot of hands-on experience. I got to do a lot of intubations, IV’s, and even got to do my first arterial line placement (not as easy as it looked). I had great interactions with the attendings and residents and on one occasion it was just the attending and I doing the surgeries (a little stressful as he usually expects the residents to do the work and I was a bit unsure of what I was doing during the case at times). As a student they worked hard on getting us into a large number of cases throughout the rotation. I got to see emergency surgeries as well as routine cases. In addition, the didactics were really really good. We would spend an hour with the first years and an attending (with food of course so that made me smile) during the first two weeks going over the basics that they should know. It really is amazing how much general medicine plays in this field. I know I made the right decision as I love medicine but just can’t stand the thought of rounding all day (it brings back flashbacks to one of my IM rotations when I just wished it would all end). Overall, I was very pleased with the rotation and was ready to come home by the end of it. One month away from my family, especially with such a young child at home, was not easy on me, and surely not on Tif but she pulled through well. We’ll see how everything works out with interviews for residency coming up right around the corner.