I’m finally home for Christmas! I finished up with my Family Medicine rotation on December 19th with a shelf exam that was supposedly the toughest one of third year – so I’ve heard. I felt pretty good about it overall, and finished with time to spare, so now I’ll just have to wait for the results to come in. So far I’ve been doing really well on these exams, so I’ll just hope that carries over for this one as well. I just checked the website where the rotation director logs each part of our grade as it comes in – so far I have no info for my exam score (it won’t even be available until the end of next week) but I do have a recommendation for Honors from both my PBL (problem-based learning; it’s small group case-based discussions) and from my preceptor that I worked with during the month. That’s a nice addition to this Christmas day.

I get to be in Seattle just over 1 more week, then back to good old STL to finish up the last half of third year. While I’m here I’m still going to get in some good family time (some more Christmas get togethers, watching April’s kids, Sunday morning with mom) as well as a whirlwind tour of Seattle when the Aussies arrive. Anna and Jeremy arrive on Wednesday (the 29th) and will be here until I leave for St. Louis. Then they and AJ will head out to NYC for a little touristy fun before they continue on (to Florida… I think) and AJ returns to Seattle just in time to jump in the Jeep with Chris and drive it out so we’ll have another vehicle in St Louis. With me getting up at the crack of dawn (or before… or sometimes not till evening if I’ve been on overnight…) AJ really needed to have his own transportation for school. We’ve already been talking about how to get all of our stuff back home (to Seattle) once we’re done with St. Louis, that’s a trip I’m REALLY looking forward to! I can’t wait to be back in Seattle for good.. and I can’t wait to be done with school and start learning the nuances of pediatrics in my residency program.

It may sound silly, but I’m looking forward to being called “Doctor”. 🙂 And I get to have that in just a year and a half. Wow…it seems so close and so far away all at once. And as exciting as it is, it’s also kind of scary. I’ve been learning a lot from the interns I’ve been working with, and in 16 months I’m going to BE an intern. Am I really going to learn enough in that time to function adequately? I’m sure I will, but sometimes I get a little panicky when I think about being the intern on call for the ER overnight and being the first person in charge of deciding what kind of care a child needs and who to call to help with it.

BUT… all of that will come in time. And I know a lot more now than I realize.

And since it is Christmas.. I’d like to end with my favorite Christmas card from this year (Click on it to get a bigger view at Rainbow Bear’s website) :

🙂 Merry Christmas!!