One year ago, I was preparing to take a huge step. Remember this post? Nerves, excitement, and anxious energy were the themes as I set forth on my first day as an orthopaedic intern. Now, exactly one year later I have officially finished my intern year! What a year it has been - filled with new experiences, exhaustion, tons of learning, frustrations, and developing as a doctor. It's been a year of highs and lows, and at this point, I'm just glad it's behind me. No more trauma intern pager, general surgery call nights, or random "24 hour" off periods that are supposed to count as a day off. It's all orthopaedics for the next four years, and I couldn't be more grateful.
To celebrate, I finally cooked myself a real meal. It certainly wasn't anything elaborate, but it is a huge step in the right direction. I whipped up a quinoa salad with black beans, red onion, and home-grown tomatoes, bell peppers, and banana peppers. To amp up the flavor I created a citrus dressing of EVOO, grapefruit juice, dijon mustard, and cracked pepper. Along with the quinoa I pan seared tofu that was coated with cornmeal and barbecue seasoning.
I stepped outside for picture taking and was quickly overcome by the heat and humidity. It was a balmy 106 degrees in Charlotte yesterday. I have a strong suspicion that I'm going to have some foul language for my Duke Energy bill this month.
A couple weeks ago, the annual CMC Graduation Banquet was held. It was an evening free from work to celebrate our chief residents and their service to our program over the past five (or six) years. Jason, Tim, and Brian were great chiefs and I certainly learned so much about orthopaedics and about being a doctor from them. We'll miss you guys!
Dr. Frick, our program director, is headed to Orlando to tackle a new challenge as chairman of orthopaedics at a children's hospital. To say that he will be missed is an understatement! How many program directors do you know that offer to take primary junior level call to experience first-hand the frustrations with the emergency department?
We were minus several residents for the celebration, but we had a fantastic time nonetheless. After seeing the drama, frustrations, and bitter personalities in some of the other residency programs this past year, I'm so happy I get to call all of these guys my friends and colleagues.
And with that, let the PGY-2 year begin! For the next two months I'll be a spine doctor, learning all that I can about that pesky back pain that seems to plague nearly everyone. My first junior level call is Saturday and the nervous energy is already palpable. Maybe I should go do a little reading . . .
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