Spring is here!

Finally, I am coming out of hibernation! Spring is definitely in the air, intern year is almost over, and I have a renewed sense of joy and purpose. March was my last month of adult medicine. I was totally dreading it - hard work, long hours, working with a private group of hospitalists rather than my own family medicine faculty. I really prayed for a good attitude and an open mind, and God definitely answered that prayer. I had a good month overall. Lots of really tough, sick patients - that I was actually able to manage with some confidence (not completely, but MUCH better than when I started residency!). My attendings were all pretty good to work with. I learned a LOT. Just comparing how much more comfortable I feel now with most of the common conditions we see in the hospital, and even with the critical patients in intensive care, I can truly say I've come a looooonnngg way since July, and it feels good! Even so, I had a heart-felt celebration when the month was over. It is awesome to be done with adult medicine for the year. Of course, there will be at least four more months over the next two years, but somehow that doesn't bother me right now. I feel as if my load is suddenly lighter. One of the things I love most about family medicine is the variety. In the midst of my crazy adult medicine month, I got to do a c-section on one of my clinic patients, circumcise her baby and then see both mom and baby in the clinic a few weeks later. What a cool job I have! Now I am on cardiology, which promises to be a pretty relaxing month. I'm doing mainly outpatient medicine - that is, clinic. So no late night pages, no discharge summaries to dictate. I do have to be at the clinic by 6 AM for lectures, but that doesn't seem so bad when my day ends at 5 PM instead of 8 or 9 PM. I hope to learn how to conduct treadmill stress tests and echocardiograms (ultrasounds of the heart). And of course, I want to get really good at managing congestive heart failure, angina, acute heart atttacks, high blood pressure, and arrhythmias since we see a lot of that in practice. I still have to do 5 call nights this month - including two weekend calls. But three of them are on pediatrics and one is obstetrics, so at least it's different. For the last 4 months, all I've done is adult medicine. And my calls last month were brutal - non-stop patients to be admitted from 5 PM to 6 AM (that's after a full day's work and before another half-day of rounding, etc.). I guess it could be worse, and calls are when I learn the most about managing medical problems. But I'm glad for a break from that routine for a while! Some highlights of the past few months include: a visit from my parents, a visit from my good friend and former roommate, Melissa, warm weather - starting to run and bike again, and Bible study with some of my fellow residents. We're going through a book called Connecting with God. It has increased my longing to commune with God more deeply and consistently and has made me appreciate how much God desires to communicate with us, his children. From the beginning, God spoke the creation into existence; then he spoke with Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses. He gave us his Word to communicate who he is and what he wants from us and for us. And he sent his Son to show us in person the way to the Father. And now he gives us his Spirit to guide us and teach us. I just need to learn to listen and tune my ears and adjust my perception to hear what he wants to say.