Derek's 3rd year Medical School Update

So, I want to update with medical school life. It's been a while.
3rd year has been fun, but very difficult and different. No more regular scheduled class time. The hardest part of adjusting to 3rd year is constantly being in a different environment every 3 weeks, being evaluated (grade-wise) non-stop all day long, and then also having to fit in study time even with the extra long hours.
Let's recap from the beginning of 3rd year.
July: Internal medicine
Derek did cardiology first. It was crazy! The doctor's worked non-stop 24-7 on call night and day. Everything was an emergency and it was a huge jump for Derek to dive head first into first year. He loved cardiology even though the rotation was crazy busy. He really liked the fact that the heart patients would come in in horrible condition, almost dead, and then after three or four days of treatment they'd be able to walk out of the hospital doing really well. He said for the people they could help it was super satisfying to see the results. He also enjoyed going to the cath lab where he could watch the interventional cardiologists place stents. The last 3 weeks were regular internal med wards, where he took care of people who had huge problem lists and he was gone really long hours. He thought it was all very interesting but definitely felt overwhelmed with it all, but felt he learned a lot.
August-September: Surgery
Surgery wasn't as scary as we thought it would be. Mostly I think we got lucky where Derek picked to go for the two 3 week blocks. He started at the VA and then went to the trauma team at the U. He really loved the "hands-on" procedures and being in the OR. Seeing people totally cut open was pretty crazy, and he felt really comfortable helping do the laproscopic procedures. He liked the VA because he was given more autonomy and was able to try his hand at lots of suturing and doing biopsies. He didn't feel he really connected with any of the surgeons though and he had a hard time with some real jerk residents that he was stuck with. It was busy, especially when we were having problems with getting Elara here. We were not ready for her yet and surgery was crazy. It was also the first time Derek had to work overnights, which was a weird adjustment.
October: Psychiatry
Elara was born right at the beginning of this rotation. Answer to our prayers. Derek was able to have really nice hours and come home to help with Elara. He actually liked the work and doctors, and it was a fun rotation. He also got really great feedback from the attendings which was needed. He was feeling that no matter how hard he worked nobody was going to notice it. He had lots of "crazy" stories from this rotation.
November-December: OB/Gyn
Derek worked super hard on this rotation! Which is funny because he has told me from day one he never wants to do OB/GYN mostly because they are on-call a lot and he doesn't want to work such unpredictable hours. He started with the GYN part and they did a lot of surgery. He definitely felt more comfortable in the OR at this point and was able to do some "first assists", which means he worked as the resident and got to do most of the surgery under the direction of the attending. He enjoyed the doctors and they must have enjoyed him because he ended up getting a letter of recommendation from one of the doctors! This particular doc was an Admiral in the Navy and liked Derek enough to ask him to come over to another hospital to help him out with some c-sections. He also got along really well with a couple of the anesthesiologists in the OR so they let him do several of the intubations while he was there, which he loves doing. The OB portion went well and he ended up delivering tons of babies and sewing up lots of tears. He hated the hours because they started rounding at 5AM so he would have to leave at 4:20AM to get to IMC on time. They also had the really long 5 overnight shifts of being there at 5AM, working all day and through the night, and then going home around 9-10AM the next day. That was always rough. He also had a hard time with the passive aggressive residents he had to work with. Overall he ended up doing really great though.

December brought a much needed, welcomed break!

January: Pediatrics
We prepped for the worst, but hoped for the best. We knew we'd probably get sick for this rotation, but what we didn't expect was that the kids would be sick before we started it. January as usual seemed like a long month. It snowed a lot and the kids were sick a lot, but we made it! Derek didn't think he would like pediatrics very much because in the past every time he sees a sick kid he pictures one of our kids sick and it just breaks his heart. This rotation was one of the hardest time wise, but probably his favorite yet. Derek, in my opinion would be an amazing pediatric doctor. He gets kids to love him, and helps the parents a ton! The attendings he worked with all wanted him to do peds and kept telling him that he was already working at the level of an intern and that they'd all recommend him to get into PCMC's program. Time wise he worked a ton! He did something called Q4 which means every 4th night he would work. So, he worked about 6 am to 7 pm for 3 days then on the 4th day he would start at 6 am and work about 30 hours straight until 11 am the next day. He then slept from 11 to 3 then played with the kids, and then went to bed at 8 pm to be at work the next day by 6 am. He did this for 3 weeks. The next week he was on hematology/oncology peds. He saw lots of sick sick sick kids with cancer and other problems. This was a bit of an emotional roller coaster. He liked this week though because he felt he was able to really connect with some families and feel like he was helping out. The other reason why he loved it was because they also let him do lumbar punctures and bone marrow aspirates, which he thought were super cool. This last week he was on well baby nursery. He said this was a lot like OB because they saw lots of new babies born and checked up on all the new babies. Tomorrow he starts outpatient clinic and will take two big tests on Friday.

Also, on this rotation another doctor offered to give him a letter of recommendation, whether or not he ended up going into peds. Yay!

February-March: Neurology
Derek will start neurology in about a week and this will last for 4 weeks. I'm not sure the schedule, but I know he gets 1 day in 7 off. When that happens he usually chooses Sunday to help me at church.

March: 2 weeks Anesthesia
Usually Derek's class gets the last two weeks of neurology off, but Derek chose to do a rotation in anesthesia to help prep him.

April: 2 weeks Opthamology

April-May: 4 weeks Family Medicine
We will be going to St. George and doing this rotation at the Callahan Clinic. This should be fun because we will be staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the month and the kids will get lots of attention. :)

May-June: 6 weeks Internal Medicine

After internal medicine this will be the end of 3rd year. Wahoo!
However, it's not really an end because Derek will start studying for step 2. There are 2 parts to step 2. A written test and an oral test. The oral test is in California and he will fly out in June, then study the whole month of July and take the written part at the end of July. This will be just in time to get ready to leave for his first 4th year rotation. He is planning on starting 4th year by doing his away rotation for the air force in San Antonio. We are still waiting to hear if he is allowed to do the rotation there. We are planning out 4th year as we speak and should have a good lay out hopefully by the end of March. It is very exciting to be planning out the last year and we even have a graduation date set (MAY 24, 2014)!!! The end is in sight.

Half way through 3rd year and looking back this journey has been amazing. We have learned so much. We have met so many amazing people. And my goodness we are excited for the next 17 months here in Salt Lake City. We are enjoying life and are so happy to be where we are learning what we are learning.