Finally!! SUMMER!

Woooo hooo! Finally finished my MICU elective at Cleveland Clinic, and as fantastic as it was, it was loooong. I'll miss the environment & my team, but I won't miss the 30 hr. shifts and the 3-4 hr. long ward rounds. I enjoyed the work in MICU, but man, those ward rounds...seriously, it's nearly the biggest thing keeping me from going into medicine. I definitely need an active medicine where ward rounds and conferences are minimal. I'd be more of a surgery person, but I can't stand the thought of such repetition, doing the same procedures day in and day out, or those really long 7-hr. ones. I think I'll be able to do an elective in ER at CCF in November, so they won't get rid of me for too long! It'll be great to see what ER is like here, I loved A&E (accident & emergency) in Ireland. I'm glad I learned loads, saw a lot of interesting cases, got over acting like a med student idiot and got an idea of what working in the US is like. Also met some really fun people, med students and residents alike, got a good eval and hopefully an LOR (if he doesn't forget).

I might have said before...I can completely see how doctors get so absorbed into their work and become married to medicine (which doesn't bode very well for social life/relationships!) and I can conceivably see myself being sucked in in the future. That thought is a little depressing, but at least I know now that I love medicine and I'm definitely going into something that's right for me, which I suppose is good! And I also got to see the crazy work that'll have to be put in to advance or direct your career in the way you want it to go. Scary, but who doesn't like a good challenge?

But now I'm ready for my few days of summer next weekend when I go to London for a 3 day pissup!

Before that, have to take the Step 2 CS. I haven't prepared much for it, but I don't feel I really need to. It's mainly English proficiency, H&P and physical exams. I'm not the best with HEENT and Neuro exams, but we'll see how it goes. Will post about it. Anything would be better than my Step 1 anyway! So driving to Atlanta on Sunday to take the damn thing on Tuesday. I hope I don't crash and burn in London!