Tomorrow

Tomorrow begins the third year of medical school for Doc.

Since I knew nothing about how this whole process worked before I had a spouse going through it, probably some of you are in the dark too. So in a nutshell, the first two years of med school consist of your traditional classroom instruction and exams. More or less like the experience most people have in college, only instead of your instructors turning a garden hose of information on you, in medical school it's more like a fire hose is unleashed, and it's aimed straight at your head, and you're expected to swallow every last drop of information and regurgitate it on the exams that come at you fast and furious.

Doc handled that part no sweat. He's a born student, that one. (Okay, he'd refute my "no sweat" claim. But I'm just keeping it all relative...because compared to say, ME, he handled it no sweat. I mean, hardly even a drop of perspiration. But he's too modest to say so himself.)

The third year is when the students start their hospital clerkships, more commonly known as rotations, in different areas of medicine. Each student spends six weeks on each rotation, eventually gaining exposure to the various facets of medicine. Obviously, since they can't have a hundred eager beaver medical students following the surgery team around all at once, the student's schedules are divided up so only a few are on each rotation at a time. Most of Doc's study buddies ("The Girls") are starting Internal Medicine in the morning, which is intense in it's own way. But not Doc. Oh no, not Doc.

GYN. As in OB/GYN. As in Pap Smears and Pelvic Exams. That's what he's starting with tomorrow morning. (I feel sorry for females suddenly!) Three exciting weeks of GYN followed by three weeks of OB, in two different hospitals. Yep...he's starting out with a bang (or poke, as the case may be). Way to dive in and immerse yourself in patient care Doc! It's like the polar bear swim they had every winter up in Vermont...not for the faint of heart.

At our quarterly crepe party last night with his study buddies, The Girls and other students there were all atwitter about tomorrow. The best analogy they could offer that would be in my limited realm of experience is how it felt before the first day of high school. You're kind of excited, but also keenly aware that you're going to be the little fish in the big pond, and the upper classmates are going to be drilling you on things and trying to make you look stupid. But at least they won't be rated by their upper classmates on a -10 to +10 scale (written on paper plates and held up for all to see) based entirely on their appearance as they walk into the facility. (As a freshman, I was a -8, which was just a foreshadow of the experiences to come. Ahh, good times!)

Tomorrow he's got an easy 8:00 a.m. start, because they have a little orientation to get things rolling. But that'll be the end of his "lazy mornings" because it's a pretty intense rotation. Following OB/GYN, he moves on to Surgery (which is a pretty rigorous clerkship too). So we won't be seeing much of Doc for the rest of the summer, which is why I'm so grateful to have the memories of our time together last week in Puerto Rico. Oh, I still have to put up a slideshow of that trip on here. Thanks for the reminder. I'll get that up tomorrow.

I'm grateful for all those who will be pitching in and helping me out with Bunch & Gator care. I fly later this week, and am blessed that their aunt and uncle are willing to just take them home for some rollicking good cousin times. Once school starts for the kids next month, I'll have to find a local solution for managing child care while Doc's gone and I'm flying. But things always work out in life, and I'm confident that a way for us to do what we need to will present itself.

Here's to all the patients everywhere who are about to be seen by doctors and their green med students in the coming days! Thanks for your patience as they learn how to work with patients! ♥