Long Time No See

We’re in the home stretch of residency!

Praise God.

I entered my last year of pediatric residency earlier this summer and it feels good.

Let’s have a recap of the year thus far, shall we?

The year started with a week of inpatient medicine with our new interns at one of our higher acuity hospitals. This was followed by a busy week in the pediatric ER where I managed fractures, seizures, asthma exacerbations, viral syndromes, and even performed two lumbar punctures!

Next up was nursery where I got to assist with deliveries and round on cute newborns. It was strange being scrubbed back into the OR for C-sections. Like what is this , med school??

I then had a week of continuity clinic where I see children for their check ups mixed with pediatric dermatology clinic which was super interesting.

This was followed by a two week elective with lactation where I rotated with a certified lactation specialist and learned how to teach new moms how to breast feed.

After lactation, I had two busy and I mean BUSY two weeks of nights. On some nights we got no sleep at all. There were a lot of learning opportunities on that stretch of nights in addition to tragic cases that had me and my team take outdoor picnics at 2am to decompress.

I welcomed the next week of continuity clinic and pediatric dermatology with open arms after that stint of nights. Then it was back to the wards at one our hospitals with more “bread and butter” pediatrics. There we managed everything from eating disorders, rhabdomyolysis, seizures, asthma, bronchiolitis, asthma exacerbations, Kawasaki, etc!

Then it was off to the county hospital where my time was split between pediatric patients in the ED, urgent care, and on the floor.

I’m now back to another week of continuity clinic and pediatric dermatology with vacation coming up next week. To think this was just the first fourth of the year!

It’s now time to start working on my CV and cover letter in preparation to start my job hunt in the near future. I’m really about to be a pediatrician, y’all!

As a third year now, I view every day as an opportunity to soak up all the knowledge I can get before I’m out there on my own next year. Life really comes at you fast okkkkkk.

But if that means I won’t have to work on weekends for the first time in 7 years then I’m ready.