July 1

It is July 1, which means it is the first Monday of the month and thus, Medical Mondays, a day to link up with all blogs medical.  If you want to check out other fantastic medical blogs (which you should), click the button below…

It is also Canada Day, which means a long weekend for me (okay, I worked overnight Friday and all day Sunday, but still I am not working on a Monday, so that is pretty huge).  I am not a very festive person, but am pumped to be heading to watch the Tattoo (aka this awesome military related show) this afternoon.  Check out this video below if you want to see why I think Tattoos are awesome.

And lastly, and most importantly (for me, at least), it is the start of a new year of residency.

A piece of me feels like I should celebrate like these guys. Image from bmaycreative.wordpress.com.

For those of you non medical people, residency training in North America follows a strange calendar year from July to July (just to make sure that we don’t actually align with other post-secondary or life related time markers).  July 1 is the official start date.  Thankfully, here, every year that is a holiday, so many get to delay the inevitable until the 2.  That being said, there are always the unlucky souls who have to start out with call on the 1st.  I was grateful to not be one of those.

So, I have survived a year of residency.

Don’t worry, I am not about to give a self-help first year survival guide. If you were looking for that… It isn’t here. Image from jeffwerner.ca.

That is 13 blocks of rotations, which for me worked out to 9 different specialties and 11 different departments or areas of departments.

I worked in two different cities.  I spent 55 nights on call, thankfully only 24 of which were spent in the hospital.  That really isn’t bad for a first year residency.  It makes me grateful for many months of home call and three rotations with no call.

She looks better than I did some nights. Image from tumblr.com.

I went through at least 10 pager batteries, two pagers (one for each city), two pairs of “work” shoes, one triplicate prescription pad and enough pens to supply a classroom for a year.

I wish my pens were that pretty. Image from penguyart.com.

I can now pull out all sorts of drains and staples, do a lumbar puncture, do a paracentesis and releluctantly sew up your wounds.  I would rather not, but I can do those things.

I have a permanent ink stain on my right ring finger.  And I still, for some strange reason prefer doing paperwork over procedures (see the previous paragraph).

I am still scared of my pager.

Image from teen.com.

I still feel like I don’t know anything.  In fact, I think I know less.  That is just the beauty of being in medicine.  The more you learn, the more your learn you don’t know.

We are still married and are still happy about it.

I still love my specialty, even though I so rarely actually see it.

So, now we move on to PGY2.  Which, for me isn’t that different from PGY1.  I am off service even more than I was last year.  But, at least this year’s off service stuff feels more relevant and likeable than last year’s off service stuff.  Some more of it is oncology related.  And, I get to cover call for my home service when I am on some of these rotations.  Not that I am excited about call, but at least I get to do it from home and with the patients/staff I will work with some day.

Other than that, things are the same.  Wandering from rotation to rotation, but getting to stay longer sometimes.   The lost feeling remains.  I am taking the same physics course again this year.  I am working on the same research (I quite like it, so that is fine).

The cool part of it all is that I can now say I am a PGY2.  Apparently, somewhere in there, I am supposed to be growing up.  I am not the baby of the residency program any more.

Unfortunately, I am not actually getting taller. Image from claireyhewitt.blogspot.com.

Hooray for a new year and for a new step in training.  Just 4-5 more years to go.

Congratulations and good luck to everyone else who is starting or moving on in residency.