Ready To Plant Roots

I've had a rough last couple of weeks.
There's been the senioritis (when will I ever NOT be presenting every patient?).
And then there's been the crisis of confidence (OMG - what am I going to do when I can't present every patient? How on Earth will I ever pass boards?)
And of course, the homesickness. I miss everything that is familiar: my dog, my couch, the meals CJ makes, my gym...
And then there is the homesickness I have for Seattle (my parents, my sister, my crazy friends whom I love dearly, driving over the floating bridge on a sunny day).
And finally, there is the stress of graduating (getting my licensing crap together, finding a job, writing a cover letter, wondering if I'll have to work at Starbucks to supplement myself while I FIND a job).
And let's not talk about money. Seriously. Denial is my coping tool there.

But...as much as I want to VENT, I know I can't COMPLAIN, because every single one of my classmates is going through the same thing at the moment. So, I'm sending out a big hug to all of you. This too shall pass....eventually. Until it does...I recommend drinking (aids in the denial).

On the plus side, I love family practice. It's totally my niche. Also, I still love my preceptor, her family and the rest of the people I've met here in SD. I would adopt my preceptor's 9 year-old daughter if I could, and the MA in the office has set up a whole girls night out this weekend as a going away party. Plus I get to tool around with Andrea on the weekends, so all in all, its been a good experience here.

Next up is Legacy, which I've been dreading, but Kitty has been enjoying herself apparently, and my dad got me all excited by reminding me how much I liked ER - so I'm more open to it now. I just wish that rotation came with an automatic prescription for Provigil. Oh, and an email back from the preceptor would eventually be nice.

Jen

Weekend Recap

Friday: After work, went to gym, came home and watched "True Lies" on TV with the family (ate popcorn too). Went to bed at 10pm.

Saturday: Spent some time at the library, then met up with Andrea for lunch and the Adam's Museum in Deadwood (super coolest museum ever, had a great time). Then we walked the town and spent some time chatting - she's an incredibly wise woman and I'm happy to get to spend time with her. Later that evening I went out in Deadwood to the bars with Tonya, Janell's MA, and some of her friends. Had much too much to drink, which was my intent - spent the night on her couch, but had to get up early as they were going to church.

Sunday: Drove home from Tonya's, showered, then went back to bed for 3 hours. Was up for an hour watching "Fiercest Warrior" with the family, then developed a massive headache and had to take some Motrin and sleep it off. Finally got up at 4pm, spent some time baking for tonight's dinner (boxed stuff that I couldn't mess up) then read outside in the sunshine.

Pictures to come.

Missing everyone.

Comments

So, forever on this blog I have disallowed comments, because I had this idealistic view that I was writing this blog for myself, and I didn't want anyone's comments to cause me to edit my ramblings.

But, as it turns out, my blog is pretty damn vanilla, and hardly full of radical ideas.

Comment away, (or not).

Jen

Super cool!!!

Reflecting

I just spent some time going over my oldest posts in this blog, from the beginning of my first rotation through the halfway point of my second one...and wow. First of all, my posts were way more interesting back then. Second of all, I realized that I've lot a little bit of the excitement. Of course this is expected, but it is a little sad too. I want to rekindle my rotations spark!
It certainly was interesting to read about how miserable I was on my first "far away" rotation in the dismal little town of Havre, Montana. My coping skills were non-existent! I am proud of how much more emotionally self-sufficient I've become over the last year. That being said, however, I think I've also become more boring. I'll have to work on that.
Today was a great day with Andrea going around to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and a fantastic little winery in the middle of nowhere. I forgot my camera, (and it barely works anyway), so I'll write more about it when I have some pics to post (Andrea said she'd email some of hers to me).
For now, I'm off to the community center to get a workout in.
Love,
Jen

1 Down, 5 To Go

1 week down that is...and it was a pretty good one! The workload was pretty light because my preceptor had two half-days this week (one because her hubby was getting knee surgery, the other because they were skipping town to visit relatives for Easter). Thusly, I have the house to myself this weekend, which is nice I guess. It means I can spend my time hogging the only computer in the house (no wireless internet) to update my sadly un-updated blog.
This is my elective rotation, but due to my dermatology preceptor being axed from having students (...), and my lack of pediatrics/women's health in my previous 18 weeks of family medicine, I'm back in good ol' primary care! This one is actually way more fantastic though. Even with a slow week we've already diagnosed Cushings, dealt with an acute flare of familial pancreatitis, and I personally did 2 paps, 10 or so pediatric visits and 2 suture jobs. Plus there was an interesting case today of a 19 year old female with an intermittently rapid heart rate. Normal exam in the office today, but I'm interested to see what the holter monitor will say! I would really enjoy this type of job.
Living with my preceptor and her family is also going well. The kids are amazingly well-behaved and fun, and I've been thoroughly absorbed into the family unit. We all sit down to the table every night for dinner, and I got a 30 minute lesson in hunting rifles/shotgun and different bullets used for different sized game (I am in South Dakota....) I really kind of hope to have the life my preceptor has (minus the hunting) when I'm her age. A good career, good kids and a happy family - what more could you want?
Tomorrow Andrea (yes, PA student Andrea....we are working in the same clinic!) and I are going to go down and visit Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument. I'm super excited to get out and explore a little bit. I'm hoping the weather holds - there is still snow on the ground here and mumblings of more powder this weekend....
I miss my man, of course, but we've been pretty positive about the separation between us. This is my 6th rotation away, and the 2nd that requires us to go a full six weeks without seeing each other (some were close enough to do a long drive for a quick weekend). We are old pros at this!
Much love to all my homies out there across the U.S...I hope you're doing as well as can be.
Jen

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