just over that green hill...

Amazing to believe that medical school is officially 75% over. Sure, there is residency and fellowships and all that stuff about life-long learning, but I'm going to keep on believing that that will all be fun once I'm in the profession.

Looking back, it has been an amazing blur of a year. Though trite, the axiom of "time flies when you are having fun" has never seemed so appropriate. Sure there have been days of overwhelming work or being spread so thin that you are just emotionally spent, but those times have been clearly outnumbered by the days and nights that our friends have been able to enjoy the change in scenery, atmosphere, and pace of life. Whereas our lives in Kirksville were primarily centered around the ultimate importance of studying the science of medicine, this year has seemed to be more of a time to learn about how to live a life in medicine. Although we continue to have didactic sessions with our clinical faculty, we also have a more fraternal dialogue about how each different specialty affects family and social life. In that respect, we were given a lot more time to spend as we pleased, whether it be study, sleep, or play.

So the year has flown by at an alarming pace and so much has seemed to change just as abruptly - marriages, divorces, births, deaths, relationships, and breakups. To me, I imagine that this has been going on for the last three years, but the pace of medical school has kept me too preoccupied to appreciate the true impact that these events have on a person's life. Now, with the tiniest additional time on my hands, it seems that these emotional stressors have more opportunity to cause significantly more impact than in previous years. So, in addition to living our lives as pseudo-doctors, we have been learning to field and diffuse the seemingly multidirectional onslaught of our various social and familial relationships. It is fortunate that support network between our colleagues here has been so strong and no matter the problem, there is always an attentive and sympathetic ear to listen.

So, as I am crossing the threshold into the fourth and final year of medical school, I hope that I have been able to learn from all the experiences that have seemed to blur together into a cloudy memory of this past year. It seems as though most of the next year has been well planned out. Most of my rotations have been finalized, but I'm still working on a few after the new year. Here is the work in progress:

May 27 - June 23, 2007: Neurology @ North Valley Neurology; Scottsdale, AZ
June 24 - July 21, 2007: Emergency Medicine @ OSF St. Francis Medical Center; Peoria, IL
July 22 - August 18, 2007: Critical Care @ Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center; Phoenix, AZ
August 31, 2007: COMLEX II
September 2 - 15, 2007: Nephrology @ Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center; Phoenix, AZ
September 23 - October 20, 2007: Inpatient Pediatrics @ Phoenix Childrens' Hospital; Phoenix, AZ
October 21 - November 17, 2007: Pediatric EM @ Phoenix Children's Hospital; Phoenix, AZ
November 18 - December 1, 2007: Pulmonology or Anaesthesiology (TBA)
December 2 - December 29, 2007: Cardiology (TBA)
January 6 - February 2, 2008: Emergency Medicine @ Maricopa Medical Center; Phoenix, AZ
February 3 - March 1, 2008: Pediatric ICU @ Phoenix Childrens' Hospital; Phoenix, AZ
March 2 - 15, 2008: Radiology (TBA)
March 16 - April 11, 2008: Family Practice (TBA)
May 17, 2008: Graduation in Kirksville!