Gearing Up for Residency!

I've got a long white coat now!

Things are starting to get real! I’ve spent the past few weeks completing on-boarding residency paperwork and courses, finding a place to live, moving, going through ATLS training and residency orientation which ended yesterday, and trying to mentally prepare myself for the fact that TOMORROW I officially begin my first day as a resident physician. I can’t believe I’ve made it to this point!

My daughter really knows how to make me emotional

If I’m going to keep it real though, everything has been a bit overwhelming, and I’m still in the adjustment phase. The largest adjustment so far is not having my daughter around for intern year. My parents (and my sister who I will continue to pay) have agreed to keep her for the year in Mississippi so that I can really focus on killing it as an intern, but not knowing my schedule also means not knowing when I’ll be able to see my daughter and the strong possibility of having to miss her birthday and the holidays with her. It is a blessing knowing that she’ll be taken care of, but the mommy-guilt is super strong! My daughter, on the other hand, is all happy go lucky, especially since my parents spoil the mess out of her. She even had the nerve to ask me why she couldn’t just stay with them for a few years until I finished residency :-/ I know being away from me is best right now, especially since I’ll be super busy this year, but she could at least pretend to miss me, LOL. She knows how to cheer me right up though, and the text she sent me the other day (above) really made me smile.

I’m also adjusting to my new surroundings. Believe it or not, at the beginning of this month, I had no idea where I was going to live! Philly prices are beyond expensive and since I won’t have my daughter this year, I decided to do a roommate search online. This resulted in a one-day flight to Philly a couple of weeks ago where I literally landed around 730am and flew back to Atlanta at 8pm. The day was a success though because I found a great roommate and now have a home for the next year. While here that day, I also took care of the FBI fingerprinting that I had to do in person, ate some great food, and since I found my place pretty early during the day, I even had time to go to the movies and have dinner and drinks at Morgan’s Pier before going back to the airport. The following week, my mother and sister drove to Atlanta to get the bulk of my belongings, so I literally made the drive to Philadelphia six days ago with what could fit in my car. This meant minimal belongings along with the pleasure of sleeping on an airbed all week, but luckily my last year of medical school was spent constantly on the move, so I’m used to traveling and getting used to new surroundings. Hopefully, I’ll get used to parallel parking and living in the city soon, but the bright side is Amazon delivered my bed today, so I’m looking forward to some real sleep tonight. 

My first pager!

The day after moving to Philadelphia, I began part one of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course, signed my training license, and received my long white coat! The day started off rough when my GPS turned off and I accidentally drove to New Jersey, but I made it in on time, and everything went smoothly. I was officially ATLS certified on Tuesday, and orientation began on Wednesday. We were given pagers, and I also was lucky enough to get one of the spots as chief intern resident. This pretty much just means that the other residents will come to me with any issues they may have, and I’ll be responsible for keeping the Graduate Medical Education (GME) staff up-to-date on everything. I see it as a great way to get to know my fellow interns, in addition to getting to know some of the faculty and staff in the program. The rest of orientation went well, and yesterday after my ACLS/BLS re-certification, I attended orientation at the hospital I will be at for the next two months. It was so surreal being given a badge that has “DO” after my name and the word “physician” under it!

It's starting to feel real now!

Tomorrow, I officially start my first day as a resident physician, and I’m on the general surgery service for the next four months. I’ll be starting off with a bang, since my first day will be on call, but I’m looking forward to finally working again. If you’re not familiar with being on call, it means my shift will last around 28 hours. The good news is when I finish on Monday morning, I’ll be post-call and will have the rest of the day off to sleep and relax. I figure it will be a great way to adjust to my new position, and being busy helps get my mind off things. Plus, I finally had a day off today, and I took full advantage of it by getting a massage, going to the nail salon, and just overall relaxing and doing what makes me happy (such as typing up this post). I’ve been dealing with a little bit of sadness over what I’ve had to recently leave behind, but I truly am excited for the upcoming new journey. I worked hard to get to this point, and I understand that sacrifices are sometimes needed to achieve goals. Hopefully it won’t be too long before my next post, but right now, I’m going to go get ready for bed because the hospital will be waiting for me bright and early tomorrow morning!