Home again

I'd gotten so homesick in these last 6 months that coming home actually came as a surprise. Six months has been the longest amount of time that I'd ever been away from home. And a lot happened in these 6 months. 

Recap: 

• I took (and passed!) Step 1 on June 13 
• Clerkships started on June 20 
• So far I've completed Inpatient Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and my Ambulatory Care Module or APM (Outpatient Internal Medicine, Community-Based Primary Care, and Family Medicine) for a total of 24 weeks  
• Inpatient IM was where I learned about electrolytes, fluids, presenting patients, and diagnostic imaging. Inpatient Heme/Onc was probably the highlight of my time. Also learned that intern year (the first year after medical school, or PGY-1) has the potential to make me a terrible person.
• Pediatrics was fun only because I had Peds GI for two glorious weeks (I like GI!). The rest was a sticky, snotty mess and not particularly clinically satisfying to me. 
• APM actively tried to kill me, multiple times....
• I lived in a hospital call room for 1 month and ate a total of 7 meals from the cafeteria during the time I did Family Medicine. Highlights: first assisting on 6 (or 7? I can't remember now) deliveries and c-sections. Getting to scrub into surgery all day on my day off (you know it's true love when you actively seek work after coming off a 30-hour call). I saw about 400 patients in that month. Fam Med is all about the volume and Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement tactics.
• Lows: there was also a week that I only showered once and worked 116 hours. I set a new personal record for amount of sleep deficit during a week. Also had to suppress my disdain for my preceptor, who never washed his hands and said all sorts of racist/sexist things to me on a daily basis. Up until that point I considered it the worst time of my life.   
• Super Lows: I got carbon monoxide poisoning at my last rotation site just before Thanksgiving, 3 hours away from Iowa City. I lived, obviously (luckily). Thanks, God and paramedics. This then became the new worst time of my life. 
• Got a lot of presents and flowers and encouragement and support in the aftermath. Thanks, friends and family.
• I passed my clerkships despite it all
• I'm home now! Been spoiled by home luxuries and the city at my fingertips. 
• My life these few days has been full of hiking and sunsets and puppies and amazing food and a boy from Texas  
• About to embark on a cruise to Mexico with my family in a couple of days 
• I'm home until January 10  and going back to Iowa
• Clerkships start again on January 11--I'm starting with surgery! The most grueling of them all.