These last 2 months

Okay, okay - so I've started 2 different posts, but feel asleep before I finished either. . .so goes surgery rotation. Here are a few things that have happened over the last few months (or that I have found out about in the last few months):

• Holly (College friend) - she had her first baby boy
• Holly (Medical School friend) - got married & had her first baby boy
• Heather (College friend) - she's having her first baby girl in October
• Lauri (my cousin) - is having TWINS!!! in February
• Ashley (College friend) - having a baby in March
• Kimberly (Childhood friend) - having a baby boy in January
• Tracy (Childhood friend) - getting married in November (to College friend Travis)
• Debbie (Dallas friend) - getting married in November (not the same weekend as Tracy)
• Lina (Med School friend) - getting married in December
• Lynsey (high school friend) - having her 2nd son in October
• Landon (brother) - got a new job & now has women asking him out
• Me - same old/same old - except that I survived Surgery!!! I can now place all sorts of lines & tubes in people

Note: I've finished my two posts from in the middle of surgery rotation - so the next two are new also. . .they're long - sorry!

For the first time - but definatley not the last

I haven't blogged in awhile. . .it's not because I haven't had exciting stuff happenining - its quite the opposite; I've had WAY too much excitement & thus haven't blogged at all. I'm still on Surgery for the next week - but then I can go back to some similance of normalicy (like not getting up at 4am).

Anyway, I was on call the other night & 10 minutes after our call started, our Trauma Pagers rang out in unison telling us that we had a level 1 trauma coming in - and it was serious. The trauma team congregated outside the trauma bay & the chief resident barked out orders - one of which was "no one goes in the room unless they are needed & doing something." My job as the lowest ranking trauma team was to "get the story" from the Aerocare nurse.

Fastforward to 3AM: the gentleman's wife has arrived from out of town. She knows that her husband was in a serious car accident - and her worst fear is that he was paralyzed - my job is to be part of the 3 person panel (the chief resident, the midlevel & I, the lowly med student) who must tell her that her dear husband did not survive. It was not my first time at having to have a conversation like this - but it was my first time being on the "giving" instead of the "receiving" end. I have learned through experience that there is no "right ways" of doing it - but there are definatley WRONG ways of delivering bad news. I was very impressed with our Chief Resident - he was caring & compassionate and yet still had the appropriate aire of professionalism.

Trauma surgery has taught me many things - but it is probably the lesson I learned this night that I will take with me for the longest - which was given to me by the midlevel resident. He asked me later, "so, was that the hardest & most awful thing you've had to do thus far?. . .well, I'm just telling ya - its never gonna get any easier - and if it does, then something is wrong."

The Reality of Medicine

I began week 5 of Surgery rotation being on call. I worked from 5:30 AM on Monday to noon today (Tuesday). I came into contact with lots of patients, but two of them stood out to me. . .HIPAA prevents me from telling too much about them - but the lessons I learned & re-learned are there for the taking.

Ms. A was one of our patients I had an opportunity to chat with after a procedure. I learned all about her four kids, who ranged in age from 8 years to 1 week old (yes - 1 week!!!) She was a little teary eyed because she missed her kids. I kinda got thrown into this case & didn't really know her history, but I found about two minutes after parting ways with her that she has a very serious condition with a very poor prognosis - so the conversation we'd had about her kids turned out to be about kids that unless God intervenes, she will not get to see grow up.

The second memorable patient was Mr. B. who is a cancer survivor. I was sent up to "get his story" for my team. I took a detailed history & physical and during the process I learned that he had a daughter about my age. I was able to identify with his story about all the chemo, radiation & his relationship with his daughter from personal experience from my dad going through the same stuff. We exchanged little vinettes about the few "funny" things that go along with being a cancer patient. I left his room with four things: 1) the info needed for my team; 2) a new friend; 3) the instinct that this man's cancer was back; 4) reasurrance that God had a Master Plan.

I've always wanted to become a doctor for as long as I can remember. When I was 14 years old, my Grandfather whom I was very close to died after a six month battle with cancer. I decided that I wanted to be an Oncologist at that point in time. I have had a very (for lack of a better word) "eventful" last few years. My father was diagnosed with cancer during my sophmore year of college. He went through a major surgery, intense chemo & radiation and miracously recovered enough to make it my college graduation (which was located 7 hours away from my hometown.) Two years later (which is now almost 3 years ago), he became sick again & within two months he entered Heaven's gates. Only two months later, my mother almost died from Viral Endocardidits which sent her heart into stage IV CHF. By the grace of God, she has recovered far more than is humanly & medically possible. During this past 1.5 years, two of my beloved grandparents passed away. Oh yeah - during the middle of all of this, I began Medical School.

Even after all of this - I am still a very content & happy person. God is good & gave me the desire to be a physician and by His perfect plan - I am now a 3rd year Medical Student. I've now realized that the true reason I wanted to become a doctor (which is to make meaningful relationships with people when they need it the most) - does not start in July of 2008 when I begin my residency - it has already started.