This year Pi day will be taking a much different form than on prior years. As tradition has it, we have gotten together with classmates on 3/14 to share in some delicious pies (both sweet and savory) and also a little friendly competition.
This year it happens to fall on a Monday and I'll be starting my new ICU rotation and Tom will have his usual work schedule that is slam packed. So...that means we had a little fun this rainy and stormy Sunday making pies for ourselves and to bring into work.
You can't go wrong with classic apple pie, so that's what we did.
The power was out at most of the grocery stores and home around our place, but once again, we had the glorious section of sand point that seems to never lose power (knock on wood of course).
The smell of pie and the thought of it ala mode is drowning out the anxieties of the week to come. First and foremost, I will get an email at 8 am PST tomorrow informing me of whether or not I matched into a residency program. While I am 100% certain (okay, 99.9999999%) that I matched, there's always a hint of the unknown. Nothing is a given. What if I didn't fill out the online application correctly? What if the programs didn't like me as much as I thought they did? What if there wasn't a good fit? All these questions and more are flooding the minds of 4th year med students everywhere. We are even excused from clinical work from 8am-10am to check our emails. I don't need two hours to check, but if one were to get the opposite news of what they wanted, having some time to re-collect themselves is certainly in order.
Once that email is over, then next step is to get through a grueling work week in the ICU. The hours are nearly quadruple what I've been working recently at the STD clinic (i.e. 12+ hours each day plus working overnight each Friday from 6 am Friday to 9:30 am Saturday). So it's going to be a shock to the system for sure. Fortunately I FINALLY found out about a safe haven in the UW medical center that I can't believe I didn't know about until this point in my career.
It's called the "crows nest" by medical students and residents and, while it might not look like much to you, it's an oasis! It's filled with fresh scrubs, about 20 call rooms that are cleaned multiple times a day, showers, and a kitchenette with fridge, microwave and hot water pot! Oh, and it has a roof top deck as well, just in case the sun ever comes out! I think I'll be frequenting this :)
So the rotation will bring up all sorts of fears of inadequacies but I'm really excited for the opportunity to kind of kick out the metaphorical cobwebs in my mind with all the medical information I feel like has fallen out of my head since I was on the interview trail. There will be really sick patients, stories of triumph, stories of loss and agony. I hope to be able to go through the month solidifying my skills, and most importantly really helping patients and their families that need it most.
Then, Friday at 9 am PST I will open that envelope with the few short words on it that will tell me where I'm going. Fortunately I get the whole day off so I can take the news and process it.
Just this week I started gendering more at the costs of moving, researching housing options, thinking about the schedule of what is to come and it got me all worked up. One day at a time, but let me tell you, the days in the next 3 months are going to be full of work, decisions, firsts, lasts, and memories!
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