David’s internal medicine rotation is officially over and we are moving on to surgery –– a whole new specialty with a whole new schedule.
The ability to experiment with different schedules has been nice for me, helping me understand what a surgery residency would be like for our family versus an internal med residency versus …. well, you know.
This time around David’s wake up call comes at 3 a.m. He is at the hospital by 4, writing up notes on surgical patients then following around the resident in his duties. In the first few days of his rotation, he has been able to scrub-in on at least one surgery. The day finally ends somewhere between 4 and 7 p.m.with an hour of study, then starts fresh and early again the next morning. With the exception of a few on-call nights, weekends are usually ours to relax.
His jaunt through general surgery (mostly Cholecystectomies, appendectomies, gastrointestinal, etc.) will last until Christmas Eve, when he gets a blissful two-week break. After coming back, he will get another two weeks off to study for the surgery shelf exam. Then, he gets to spend the next weeks in the area’s only burn center. Patients from all over will come in for burn surgery, giving him a little glimpse into what he might experience if he goes into plastics.
Three days in, we are still adjusting to the schedule. I am really enjoying the early mornings, finding that time my most productive of the day. David is, well, getting used to it. Although it is tiring, I can tell that he is enjoying surgery and learning a lot.
Here’s to another great rotation!
