Oops!  It's been a while since I posted!  To fill you in, we got back to work on a good foot after our Christmas/New Years vacay ... Stuart to his semi-new job in the Blending and Shipping division at Chevron, and me at Children and Women's hospital BIRTHING BABIES!  Yes, you read that right.  My hands have been in many places they have never been before/should never go again.  It's a semi-stressful rotation, nowhere near as bad as surgery so far, and it's pretty fun.  It runs the gammot (is that how you spell that??) from seeing clinic patients to assisting robotic surgery to birthing babies.

Anyway, the big challenge that this new year brings is summarized in this lovely photo at the top of this post:  figuring out our future.  Or perhaps I should say, trying not to panic/worry/fret/be overzealous in dreaming as God directs our future for us!  The time has come for me to 'grow up' as a medical student and (1) pick my future specialty as well as (2) decide where I want to go for residency.  Fortunately I think I have my specialty pretty well figured out to be Internal Medicine.  Basically because I have ruled everything else out!  Haha.  Here's how that process went:

- Neurology rotation - Loved.  Brains are cool (nerd alert).  However; most of your patients don't get better and you just give them a lot of pills
- Pediatrics - I don't know how to act around children.  I still can't look in an ear with confidence.  It was not challenging enough (nerd alert #2)
- Surgery - Turns out I like cutting things and sewing them back together.  Turns out blood doesnt make me faint.  Turns out I enjoy having a life too much to do this.
- Ob/Gyn - I dig women's health/women's rights.  I don't dig putting large instruments into you-know-where.  It makes me a little queasy
- Family Practice - Haven't done it yet but it involves children, so that's out.
- Internal Medicine - Shadowed an internal med doc over Christmas and LOVED it.  I love old people.  I like the complexity of managing several diseases at once.  Variety is the spice of life.

See?  Decided.

Now the next step is figuring out where in the heck I'm going to finish learning to be a doctor.  There are so many factors that go into that decision!!!  Big program or small one?  Community based or university based hospital?  Big town or small one?  Terrible call schedule or moderately terrible call schedule?  Those are kind of obvious questions I anticipated.  But as I've looked a little more I've discovered more, like: Can I learn Spanish through a program here?  Can I do an International rotation?  Is there a housing stipend?  Agh!  So much to think about!

Since I have to keep you reading this blog and on the edge of your seat, I'm not going to reveal just yet where we are thinking about going!!!  But as of now I have a list of about 10 programs I may want to apply to.  That may grow or shrink.

Finally, and most of all, Stuart is the most amazing husband in the world.  He fully supports me in this, knowing that the next few years with residency will be super tough!  He also wants for us to make the best decision for me and my education and career (maybe because he wants me to make a lot of $$ later so he can be a stay at home dad??).  I am so blessed to have such a great husband!