My White Coat Life

Don't I look professional? Hah. I still have no idea what I'm doing. I'm sorry for the lack of posts recently, but school pretty much owns me these days. I spend my days in class getting flooded with information, and I spend my nights trying to process that information into something I can understand and retain. We have 2-3 tests every week, which is pretty much terrible, but at least it forces me to study.

I recently found out where I will be spending June 2007-June 2008. I will not be coming to College Station (sad day, everyone), but I did end up with some pretty incredible rotations.

I will be spending my first 3 months doing OB/GYN and pediatrics, during which time I get to spend 2 weeks at LBJ's pediatric ER, and time in the nursery with the babies!

Then I get go to prison! Just kidding... kind of. I'll be spending a month doing general surgery on prisoners here at UTMB. It turns out UTMB is the only medical campus that's associated with a prison hospital, so we spend a lot of time with inmates. Yay for us. I've never had to walk through so many gates and doors in my life. We had an orientation about why you shouldn't leave anything in the room after you leave. It went something like this:

Prison Guard: "What does this look like to you?"
Us: "A toothbrush?"
Prison Guard, turning the toothbrush over: "WRONG! It's a weapon to kill you with!"

Yep. There was a razorblade on the other end of that toothbrush.

Apparently a couple of tongue depressors, some tape, and a razoblade broken out of your shaving razor can make a pretty deadly weapon.

My favorite line was this, "watch out for that IV tubing - they might strangle you with it!"

What are we supposed to do? Take the IV out? Please.

Anyway, I'm still excited about getting to do surgery and prisoners are people too, even if they do try to kill you with some IV tubing.

My next month will be spend at the VA hospital in the medical center, doing reconstructive plastic surgery. I'm really excited about getting to do this rotation. It's an elective that I had asked for, and I think it will be really interesting.

Then I've got ER and then psychiatry in my hometown of Kingwood. Probably sending someone to their hometown to do psychiatry is not a good idea, but I'll take it because it means free housing. Let's just see how awkward it can be when someone I know comes in.

The month of February I'll be back here, working in the HIV clinic on campus. I kind of freaked out when I got this rotation, because I certainly didn't ask for it. And then I remembered that the Lord is completely in control of everything, and it occurred to me that this could be an incredible opportunity for me. A huge part of me going to PA school was my desire for missions. On my trips one of the things I noticed was the incredible need for healthcare in third world countries. I'm not sure what that's going to look like in my life later, but I know that I want missions to be some part of my life. That being said, what's one of the most prevalent diseases in third world country? HIV. Incredible.

After that I've got my family medicine, internal medicine, and geriatrics rotations. I'll be spending May in Tyler, and that's really my only rotation that I won't be in the Galveston/Houston area. I've got some friends that live there, so I shouldn't have any problems finding housing.

These rotations are an answer to prayer on so many levels. Besides the incredible opportunity with the HIV clinic, I'll be spending almost all of my time here in Galveston or in Houston. That is such a blessing because I've been so worried about joining a church that I wasn't going to be around for. Sooo.. I'm joining Houston First Baptist! I visited the singles Bible study class last weekend and I felt so at home. It's so wonderful to feel like a part of a church again instead of just a visitor.

Well, that's the update, folks. I've got another week here of school before Spring Break and then I'm headed up to Kentucky! I'll be sure and post pictures and stories when I get back. Love you all!