Something wicked this way comes...

I am finally ALMOST finished with my surgery rotation AND third year of medical school!!! The only thing left is my NBME (nationally standardized test) on Friday morning. And then, Jordan and I are off to Memphis to see WICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am SOOO pumped! I have wanted to see this since my sophomore year of college! As soon as we heard it was playing in Memphis, my mom got tickets for Jordan and me. Will definitely post more about this exciting trip!

I thought I'd share of the highs and lows of my surgery rotation, just for fun.

Coolest surgery: plastic surgeon reconstructed half of a man's face using the muscle from his belly

Second coolest surgery: aortic thrombectomy...We cut into this woman's aorta and pulled out huge blood clots from inside, and also pulled several up from her legs. It was insane...the clots came out exactly in the shape of the blood vessels (you could even see smaller vessels branching off!)

Longest surgery (that I actually stayed for the whole time): 8 hour liver resection (a man had colon cancer that spread to his liver so it had to be taken out)

Longest surgery (that I thankfully did not have to stay for the whole time): 12 hour aortic aneurysm repair...this guy had an incision from his back underneath his shoulder blade, curved around his body, down his abdomen to his groin. Crazy!

Best day: my private practice day during plastic surgery when I got to see a breast augmentation and tummy tuck--it is different than on TV!

Favorite surgery service: surgical oncology. This was my 4 week service and I really liked the team.

Least favorite service: vascular surgery. I thought is was pretty boring, but that's mostly because they didn't let us do much.

Coolest thing I got to do: I would have to say intubating a patient (putting a tube down their throat so they can breath while they are under anesthesia). It's harder than you'd think it is, and you have to do it really fast!!!

One thing I realized during surgery was that I really do like being in clinic. You get to interact with the patients so much more. I didn't do much clinic time in the last 8 weeks, but I got to go to clinic this Monday and was so excited to really get to be with the patients, as opposed to just seeing them in the OR and in the hospital. I also realized I can't wait to get back to ACH and see some kids!!!

Success!

My oral exam is over! Even after having to take it one day early, I was really happy with my score. And even more happy to be done with it!!! Now I can just focus on the NBME (a nationally standardized test, we take one at the end of almost every rotation) that is this Friday. This week we only have to work until Wednesday, and then we have Thursday off to study. So 3 more days of surgery!!! I have been on the Vascular Surgery service for the past week. These surgeons are very... opinionated, to say the least. They can throw a fit in a hurry!

On Saturday Jordan and I did some shopping. First, I have to mention the Amazing bagel we had at Panera bread for breakfast. Cinnamon Crunch--the best bagel I have ever had! So, while we were shopping, we found some new floors for our kitchen, and I think we are going to purchase them! They are laminate with a hardwood look. We have been looking for some new flooring for a long time and this has a great price! Also on Saturday, we ordered my new phone! I am so excited to be getting my new iphone in 7-10 business days! :) My old Blackberry Curve is not going to make it much longer!

Friday was National Flip Flop Day at Tropical Smoothie Cafe. They gave away over 500 free smoothies!!! The deal was, wear your flip flops in and you get a free 24oz. Jetty Punch smoothie, and you had the opportunity to donate to Camp Sunshine, a camp for kids who are terminally ill. It was a very busy day, but everything went great and Jordan had fun too!

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

Study, Study

I got an email yesterday...my oral exam for surgery will be Friday, June 19th. Yikes! So, starting tomorrow, I have to do some serious studying! I'll have to make out my plan tonight. From what I hear, the doctor that will proctor my exam is one of the more intense ones, but we have no control over who we get, so I'll just study hard and see what happens!

This is my last week of plastics, and then I'll move on to vascular surgery next week. A few of the OR cases I have seen while on plastics:

breast augmentation (both cosmetic and reconstructive after breast cancer)

face lift

tummy tuck

many, many, scar revisions and wound closures

Overall I think it's been a good rotation. One funny story: At ACH (Children's) on Wednesday, we were putting the blood pressure cuff on a little girl before she went under anesthesia for a wound revision. A lot of times with kids they'll tell them the BP cuff is "testing their muscles" or silly things like "this will tell us how many boyfriends you have." That's what they told this little girl and she replied "I'm five--I don't have any boyfriends--I'M IN PRE-K!". She was so appalled at the thought of having a boyfriend!!!

Today Jordan got a phone call from a Channel 7 reporter. She wanted to interview him! She called at around 2:00 and wanted to interview him for the 5 o'clock newscast, so it all happened very quickly! The story was on local businesses who use Twitter to offer deals to the people who follow them on twitter. We watched at 5 and it was a really good segment. And of course Jordan was excited to get his 15 minutes of fame. :) This was a welcome treat for him today after he got a phone call from the store early this morning--the oven was not working, the AC was broken, and they were out of cups! He was not a happy camper, but being on the news turned things around! Look for him to be on Channel 7 again next Friday talking about National Flip Flop day.

Have a great weekend! Wish I could be here....

Sandals Grande, St. Lucia...we joked all week that was P. Diddy's yacht!

3 more weeks...

It's true. Three more weeks of surgery, and I cannot wait for it to be over. I'll say this: it's been better than I imagined it would be, but still no fun. I finished four weeks of surgical oncology last Friday, and now am in the middle of two weeks of reconstructive plastic surgery. I'll finish up the last two weeks with vascular surgery. Also in the last week of surgery we are required to take an oral exam as well as a national standardized exam. The oral exam consists of a surgical attending (top dog doctor) and a resident (surgeon in training, already an MD) who will test me over 4 surgical cases which are given to them in a sealed envelope (there is a list of 30 cases to choose from). Depending on which attending you get, this can range from mildly painful/intimidating to excruciatingly painful.

Today in plastics we had two clinics, one at UAMS and one at ACH (AR Children's Hospital). I was so excited to get to spend some time back over at Children's. Kids are so fun.

Jordan is really busy with the store, and loving it. Tonight they had a fundraiser for Immanuel Baptist Church, so they were really cranking out those smoothies! He's really excited to get to work with our friend Rebecca at Saline Memorial Hospital. If you are on Hwy 10, don't forget to drop by and see him!

Well, this is our blog. We thought it'd be fun to start one, especially with all that's going on with Jordan and the store and me with school. In the next year I will take Step 2 CK/CS (the second part of my medical boards), apply to residencies, MATCH!, and finally graduate! We wanted all of our friends and family to be in the loop with all of the craziness that will happen in the next year. Lots more to come! Oh, and for all the ladies out there, you have got to go purchase this:

It really gives great color and doesn't have that self-tanner smell that some of the other "gradual tanning" lotions have.

We'll try to be good bloggers and update often. Once I figure out how to hook my camera up to the computer, I'll show you all the cute patio chairs and table I just finished painting. I'm really proud of them! Have a fun weekend! I'm planning on getting lots o' sun and relaxing by the pool (after weekend rounds course)!