Motorcycle City

I'm here....and "here," is Sturgis, SD - home of the biggest Harley Davidson rally each Summer, and also my new home for 6 weeks.

My rotation is family practice with a PA named Janell. I am also living with Janell and her wonderful family. They consist of Janell, her husband John, her two kids Seth (12) and Holly (9), 2 dogs and 3 cats. They have me in a very nice room in the basement and they feed me dinner while charging me next to nothing. I have only been here 24 hours and I already feel pretty comfortable, so I'm hoping by the end of the week some of this home sickness will wear off.

The drive out here was pretty uneventful. I got a bit of a late start on Saturday, not leaving the Portland area until 1:30pm, so I didn't get into Missoula until 11pm (I lost an hour due to time zones). I was back on the road by 9:15 the next morning and made it here around 7pm. I was knackered, and slept like a rock last night.

Today was day #1. I rode with Janell into work and we actually had a pretty light day with only 11 patients. This is a good thing, because it gave me time to get a little more settled in and acclimated, without feeling rushed or like I was slowing my preceptor down. This is the first time she has ever had a student, but she is pretty laid back and I think she will get the hang of being a preceptor pretty quickly. Already today she let me take the reins on a few appointments, and had me do some quick and dirty (ok, ok, they were sterile) suture jobs. I think I passed the first day.

We went home and we all had a nice, sit-down dinner of chicken, stuffing, potatoes and salad. It was sooo nice after eating on the road for the last two days! There is even a community center that I got to check out today and will probably join to go work out in, and hopefully that will give me a little extra sanity.

Anyway, I'm going to turn on the TV and see if the game is on...GO MICHIGAN!

Jen