17 days and counting...

I'm almost done with my intern year!!!  I can't believe it!  It went by fast.  I'm super excited, and a little nervous too.  I'm not sure if I'm ready to be a second year resident.  But I don't really have a choice because they passed me on all of my rotations this year so apparently somebody important thinks I'm ready.  :)  I still feel like I have SO MUCH to learn.  I think I'm going to be reading a lot more this year.  I feel like intern year was kind of just a time to get my feet wet, to get accustomed to Pediatrics, and to learn the system.  NOW I need to learn the art of medicine.  It's a lot to squeeze into a 3-year residency.  But I know being a doctor will involve lifelong learning.  I'll never be done learning or taking tests.

Top ten memories of intern year:

10. Walking into my first continuity clinic ever and looking at my first patient's chart - former 22 week premie with cerebral palsy, hearing loss, blindness, hypothyroidism, etc., etc., etc.  AHHHH!!!

9. Circumcising a little African-American baby boy who was so large we nicknamed him "Big Dog Duckett".

8. Rounding on patients with the ward team dressed up as the Flintstones on Halloween.

7. Walking with our leukemia patients on the annual Light the Night walk.

6. Telling off a lab tech only to come face-to-face with him several weeks later when I had a needle-stick injury and he had to draw blood from me.  KARMA.

5. Having a ward spelling bee because all the guys on our team were so bad at spelling - taking home the winning ribbon!!

4. Walking into one of the Labor & Delivery rooms with a newborn in his bassinet, giving my discharge instructions and realizing halfway through I'm in the wrong room - receiving blank stares from parents who have not had their child yet.  Oops.

3. Running my first mock code ever on the ward, not just as practice but as the "official" pediatric ward mock code - failing miserably and crying in front of two attendings (including the department chief).

2. Causing a raucous in Fredericksburg during our resident retreat - Sue throwing a bottle of Worcestershire sauce and me dropping and shattering a bottle of beer.

1. Making some great new friends.  :)