Step 2

Right now, I am busy studying for step 2 boards. It is rough! I trying my best to do 8 hour days but it is hard..and I really am ending up doing 5 hour days. I feel exhausted already and still have a little over a week left. I am nailing down my schedule for the fall which is nice though! I am hoping I end up getting an ob rotation in Columbus, even though it will be past interview dates. So far I am going to Portland Maine, Madison Wisconsin, and Columbus? Then I will be in Charleston the rest of the time.

Well..enough break, back to studying for me! Hoping I don't stay up as late as I have been (studying til 4am doesn't make sense for anyone!)

Boards..once again

I have three weeks till Boards..freaking out!

I just read a article on how Gisele Bundchen had a water birth at home. In the article, she also stated how birth didn't hurt. It is pretty neat to hear a celebrity, especially some big fancy supermodel, say those things about her birth. She also says that she thinks it should be a world wide law that women have to breast feed till their baby is at least 6 months old. I wish more people thought like that...hopefully when I am an OB I'll be able to convince some of my patients!

Stress and my Future

I can't tell you how stressed I am. I take step 2 boards in 4 weeks and haven't studied that much as of yet..but I am trying to tell myself that I still have FOUR weeks. Right? I am also trying to plan my wedding which is in 2 months. This is a lot of stuff to do. On top of that I am trying to figure out my next year, calling and emailing residencies all day. It is hard! I wish I had OB rotations set up where I want to do but that is harder done than said. Praying that I at least hear from a couple programs this week. I also am trying to figure out my mandatory rotations for next year too. All of this with NO help sucks! Needless to say my apartment is disgusting..I don't care about laundry or the dishes when I get home.

I did apply to my DO OB programs this weekend, which is scary and exciting at the same time. I will be applying to MD OB programs and MD FM-Women's Health residencies. I really hope it works out..I really want to do OB at this point..I think I made that clear in my personal statement, which I hope they read.

Why do things tend to happen all at once? I think God is just testing me to see how much weight I can handle on my shoulders..I know I can do it though!

Officially a Fourth year!

So, it is now about 10 months until I graduate and get the letters D.O. after my name. This is both exciting and scary! Hoping I learn enough in the next ten months to make me feel a lot less nervous about being in charge of people's lives!

My peds rotation kind of did end up changing things. My rankings of residencies are still OB as number one but peds is definitely a close second. I liked working with the kids and think I would enjoy inpatient, besides you have a much better lifestyle. It sucks thinking about lifestyle but you have to! I feel bad because I am so passionate about Ob and women's health issues that I don't want to leave it behind. I guess we will just see what happens. I am going to apply to both programs and see what happens.

I am now on anesthesiology and it is so boring! It isn't for me at all but at least I am getting a lot of practice with intubating and placing I.V.s. Today, when we went to do an epidural I just wanted to stay on the OB floor. I wish I could have said, "Hey anesthesiology doc, I know it is my first day but can I abandon your service and just stay here!". We even went and did a bolus on a patient who was about to deliver and my OB preceptor was the doc..I wanted to stay with him so bad it hurt walking out of the room! Overall, it was a good day though! I have a night of reading about anesthesiology drugs in front of me though because I know nothing about them really, their mechanisms especially. I also got pimped all day on the brachial plexus, what the crap! I haven't even really looked at that since studying for step 1. Looks like I will have a fun night tonight!

Wedding plans are coming together (kinda!). I have to order flowers and figure out the menu, but that is about it. I think I have a photographer, which I wasn't planning in the beginning but decided I really need to have pictures so I am going to work it in somehow. I also need to plan a weekend to pick up my bf's suit and my dress. Thinking about wedding stuff right now, I need to move my ring to a safer spot since I can't wear it on this rotation. As of right now, we can't do a honeymoon which sucks but it is hard when I have a rotation in Portland starting the week after..hmm.

So, right now it is off to studying, trying to schedule rotations (btw trying to set up OB audition rotations is so hard!!!), and figuring out a budget for the next year.

Starting to like Peds!

So, after a few weeks on this peds rotation I have started to actually like it. Maybe it is because of all the babies I see! Their well child visits are so fun! Hmm...this decision on what to do with my life is getting hard!

I just read this birth story, which is great: http://lumpsandwoozles.blogspot.com/2010/06/logan-james.html.

HOWEVER..at the very end she says " Turns out also that he wasn't an OB/GYN he was a DO...". Come on..DOs are doctors and can be whatever they want. How do people not get this? I try not to let it bother me..but it does! We need more DO advocacy or something out there!

NICU?

Right now I am on peds rotation..the first few days made me decide it was not for me. Although, this week I did two days inpatient, which was really fun, and two days in the NICU. I love the NICU and I got to see births from a different side. The NICU is sad though and hard. Today, I got to watch a birth in which the mother had no epidural and it was so nice. The mom was fantastic and baby was great..well not exactly. She started bradying down and starting grunting and retracting..the nurses freaked out about it. I think she was fine and just needed time (and two of the NICU nurses agreed with me and told me they were embarrassed that the neonatologist was even called about it). I understand why they freaked out but if you are giving her oxygen and watching her you don't need to freak out about it..all her other stats were fine! Hmm...

Ahh nothing like Vacation

So, today is the last day of my vacation! How Sad! I start pediatrics tomorrow. It is the rotation that might change all my plans so I am kind of excited/worried about it! I should be studying right now but instead I am working on a presentation for education day at my hospital site. I am doing it on a patient I saw a few months ago and further going onto discussing a few derm things like erythema multiforma, pemphigus vulgaris, TEN, etc. I think it will be good board prep stuff (hopefully!). However, I have procrastinated on this and am to turn it in by tomorrow..blah.