All done for 2014!

Yesterday marked a momentous occasion for me: I finished my surgery clerkship. That means I have finished one half of my third year of medical school, and three of the most demanding clerkships of the year (or so I’ve been told). With Medicine, OB/GYN and Surgery out of the way, I have Psych, Pediatrics and Family Medicine left as well as an elective at the end of the year. But before I get to planning all of that, I’m putting away the scrubs and settling in for a few days of rest and celebration of Christmas with the family. It feels good to have my ring on my finger as opposed to where it has lived for most of the day while I’ve been on general surgery:

For memories sake, I like to list a few of the things I’ve seen on this clerkship:

-        - Breast surgery including lumpectomies and mastectomies (we took out tumors bigger than a golf ball before!)
- Colon resections for cancer and diverticulitis
- Bariatric surgery for folk with a BMI of 50
- LOTS AND LOTS OF HERNIAS- inguinal, umbilical, femoral, sliding, spiegelian, incisional, incarcerated, strangulated…and I could keep going
- Gallbladders and appendix’s :)
- I got to take a biopsy of a brain mass! – a neurosurgeon was gracious enough to let me in on that one!
- Tongue cancer removal (you don’t want to know the details about that one, it was pretty awful…)
- Pilonidal cyst removals (again, you probably don’t want me talking about that one at dinner)
- Lipoma removals (benign fatty tumors)
- And several very sad metastatic tumor removals that were done for palliative reasons, they gave the patient another 72 hours with their families.

I got to see so much more than that too. I was able to act as the “first assist” on nearly every surgery we did, and I also got to close the incision on almost every case as well. The opportunities I was given to gain hands on skill were great. I feel much more comfortable in an O.R. and also feel much more comfortable sewing skin closed! I feel fortunate to have done my rotation in Montana and I have learned just a little bit more about what I do and don’t want to do in my future career. I don’t want to be a general surgeon, but I do hope to have some surgical or at least procedural component to my career. I learned that I like the O.R. a lot, but I don’t LOVE it to the point that I’m ready to jump out of bed at 2 AM to go fix a perforated bowel. And I’d have to LOVE that in order to survive a general surgery residency. It’s calming to know that I don’t want to do that, and that it’s not for me. Because prior to this rotation, I was starting to think that I was going to love everything and then I’d be in a real bind!

We’ve had a lot of good times in Missoula (especially since Tom came to town!). We enjoyed the Seahawks vs 49ers game at my uncle Curt’s house with his GIANT 65” TV!

 

My dad opened a Christmas present a little early—a new under water camera that he can’t wait to break in during their trip to the Cayman’s this January. 

 

Also, I was spoiled by the fact that my dad is an amazing handyman. I had a giant hole in my “doctor bag” that Kristi got me last year for Christmas and my dad fixed it up like new!

The night before my last day on the job we enjoyed a night out on the town with Mom and Dad at a local restaurant called “The Top Hat.” 

They had live jazz and AMAZING food. 

They even spoiled Tom by providing him with his very own water glass 

And, last night to celebrate the my final being over, we joined my grandma at the Lady Griz game—we were scarf twins!

As I sit and watch Peyton chew on her bone(s) each night, I reflect on what an amazing experience I've had these past 6 weeks and how much I've learned and grown in 2014 as a medical student. I'm looking forward to the second half of third year, but right now, I'm thankful for 2 weeks off to take a few deep breaths, schedule the rest of the year and brace myself for the next part of the journey. Merry Christmas everyone!