It's been 12 weeks since the start of rotations and I'm amazed at how quickly it's flown by. I've been lucky with my rotation as the hospital I was at had a large variety of different patients. Definitely the most cerebral yet of rotations, I enjoyed the feeling of half terror and half excitement about what cases I would have to work on the next day. While I lament the time that's passed since I've last practiced any medical procedures, I enjoyed speaking with the patients during their stay in the hospital and managing the various co-morbidities on top of the primary diagnoses. There's just so much to learn, so much old and so much new, that it can be a little overwhelming. Nothing left for it but to keep on studying, keep on the steady path.

I'm going to miss rounding at the hospital but it's time to look forward to the next rotation: Pediatrics. I was actually supposed to start Surgery this Monday but had to deal with a little last minute shift in clinic sites. Rather than one site, I'm doing a split rotation that has both outpatient and inpatient components. I'm happy for the opportunity since I've long since associated the specialty as outpatient in my mind. I studied better for this past end of rotation exam but I'm still fine-tuning the process. I finished reading Case Files: Internal Medicine, which I'm still enjoying for these rotations, so I'm continuing to read Case Files: Pediatrics for the next rotation. I'm also adding Pediatrics: PreTest Self-Assessment and Review to see if it will make any changes in my performance.

On top of studying, I still need to work on completing my thesis as well. I had to explain it to my new academic adviser (my last one left to start an orthopedic clinic in another state) who genuinely seemed interested in the topic. I'm trying to examine how end of life discussion affects minority populations in the US. It was tricky in the beginning finding sources that dealt with my subject, especially given that "end of life care" and "palliative medicine" is still relatively new.

So there you have it, more studying more work to do until summer of next year. I'm still enjoying the summer here in Chicago before the great Winter rears its head. Safe to say, I'm making the most of it!