A very brief review of the year in photos (mostly from the hospital).
Fall.
Winter.
Winter's Snopacalypse.
Spring.
Summer (Not in the hospital, obviously).
July has come and gone in the blink of an eye, much like the first year of residency. I cannot believe how time has marched. Some days were eternities, others were milliseconds. Time is elastic.
I'm sitting alone in the resident room at the hospital, covering the service, staring at the sunny outside, watching pigeons stroll by the window and check me out. Somewhere in Seattle, Winning Run and kiddo are playing outside getting ready for the audible assault of the Seafair Airshow's Blue Angels. I'm typing this and hoping for a quiet afternoon which, by simply typing that phrase (or even thinking it), is unlikely.
So, the calendar has ticked over and I'm now in the second year of residency. I've been through the gauntlet of intern year's ridiculous inpatient schedule. I've wandered like a zombie through the hospital halls, exhausted, hungry, wasting away, doing my best to keep it together and earn the confidence of those around me. On some days, this work (like any) can seem so effortless, so second nature; on others, however, every moment seems foreign, terrifying, unfamiliar.
I'm still trying to process the year, still battling against the fatigue that has accumulated, still trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel in order to offer up something of myself when I make it home. A colleague and I were talking about whether we'd do this over again knowing what we now know and I'm uncertain of my answer but am leaning toward "Hell no."
One thing's for sure, though, I can endure. Hell, I have endured and, perhaps, maybe even thrived. This experience of being a doc is unparalleled. I have the honor of seeing so much that many folks can't even imagine. In some ways, there's the hook that keeps you coming back. "First one's free, kid."
Two months of inpatient family medicine, two months of inpatient internal medicine, one month of inpatient obstetrics, one month of inpatient pediatrics, one month of emergency medicine: these things add up! I'm happy to have them in the rearview and happier still to be more comfortable in hairy situations. I do, however, look forward to more time in the outpatient world, in my clinic, and, of course, with Winning Run and kiddo who will be three (!!!) in a few months.
March on, time, march on.
Posts
