Well, I'm officially in my fourth and final year of medical school. It's amazing how quickly it has flown by but at the same time I recall moments during first and second year that seemed to drag on. I finished up third year doing OB/Gyn in April and Peds in May. I loved almost all of my rotations this past year but these two really stuck out and were phenomenal.
My April rotation was back with the OB/Gyn I rotated with in September. Honestly, if I wasn't going to do Peds I would most likely go in to OB/Gyn. Like my September rotation, this one was full of some crazy unexpected twists and turns. I encountered one of those experiences that I definitely will never forget in my whole medical career. It was at the beginning of the month and I went to check on one of our ladies that had been in labor for about 13 hours. It was her first pregnancy so she was actually progressing quite well. I walked into the room to find the soon-to-be mom, her husband, a nurse, and a tech. She was in the final stages of labor and had started to push. As I was talking to the patient and asking her how she was feeling, her leg went numb and within a few minutes her left hand started to shake. My first thought was "oh s**t, this is going to be bad" but the nurse reassured the patient, husband, and me that she had been laboring so long her muscles were fatigued. Well...I was right. She went full on grand mal seizure. The nurse and tech ran out of the room to get help so you know, it was just me, a seizing lady, and her frantic husband. We did a C-section and had baby out within 8 minutes of her seizure. Long story short, the mom recovered, baby was fine and adorable, and it was the first time I was put in the real doctor shoes. It was amazingly scary but I learned a lot about myself. Most importantly, I didn't freeze in an emergency.
May was my favorite rotation of the entire year. It firmly cemented Peds is the right place for me. I was able to rotate with a different pediatrician who has been out of residency for two years. He took a lot of time to teach me things and give me pointers for residency. I encountered a little girl that absolutely stole my heart. She is 14 months old and has a rare heart condition called Scimitar syndrome. She has had 5-6 surgeries already in her short life and is scheduled to have her right lung removed in the next week. So much has happened in her short life yet she is so happy and full of life. Her little body wasn't constructed to take her past her third birthday most likely, but that little peanut made a huge impact on me and how she LIVES her life and there honestly hasn't been a single day since I was blessed to meet her three weeks ago that I haven't wondered how she is doing.
And then there was the past two days. The first two days of fourth year. They have been downright incredible. I am on internal medicine and lucked out that my attending has dismissed us to study for boards which I really need to do. Blessing. Yesterday I received an email from our Med Ed secretary wanting to pass along my most recent evaluation because she thought I needed to see the comments. It had me really nervous. Like sweaty palms, pitting out nervous. Evaluations from peds clerkships count as a whole lot for residency selection. Well I think my attending was way nicer than I deserved. He wrote many flattering things including "Very professional and polished like a senior resident despite only being a third year medical student." Awesome. And today, I received an email from the attending with a letter of recommendation for me and a note saying that because he hadn't done very many of these, he sent my letter to the pediatric residency director at Mizzou to have her look over it. She responded with an inquiry as to whether or not I would be applying to their program because she would love to interview me in the fall. Are you kidding me?!?!? Honestly, I had ruled out MD programs because I didn't feel competitive enough but this gave me hope. My dream program has always been Mizzou. I literally almost cried happy tears in our medical library while reading that. Even if nothing happens, it was an amazing confidence boost that is much appreciated before boards and starting the application process.
To top of the past couple awesome months, my mom's scans came back completely clear. We had been following some suspicious nodes that were lighting up on scans but they have completely resolved in the past 6 months. Her tumor marker levels were also in normal range so it was the best possible news.
Till next time.
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