Allergy and Immunology Was SO FUN!...

The past 4 weeks have been so wonderful! I have been doing a rotation with the Allergy/Immunology (A/I) service at ACH. We had clinic on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and on Tues/Fri we would meet for short lecture and also do consults (see patients in the hospital). This was a great rotation for many reasons:

1. Sleep. I got a lot of it. I usually had to be at work by 8:30 or a little earlier. This was wonderful. I got to eat my cereal, drink coffee, and watch Fox and Friends before going to work!!!

2. Learning. Food allergies and asthma are important things to know about as a pediatrician. I feel more confident about those topics now. Also, immunology is really confusing and most immune deficiencies are really rare, so it was great to get some exposure to these rare diseases and to learn more about them.

3. People. I LOVED the people I worked with this month. The resident I worked with was so fun and very nice! The nurses were wonderful and so helpful to us. And the attendings were the best I could ever ask for! One of them even called me on my last day to thank me for working with them! What?!

4. Clinic. I really like it. You get to see tons of people throughout the day and it is fast paced.

5. Days off. This relates to #1 but it was really nice to have time to do things and not be rushing around after getting off really late everyday!

Sadly, this 4 weeks has come to an end, but it will probably be my favorite rotation of this year. For the next 4 weeks I will be doing a required rotation in surgical subspecialities: Orthopedic surgery, ENT, Anesthesia, and Urology. I start Ortho tomorrow.

Quick update on Residency applications: So far I have six interviews. ACH, Oklahoma City, Augusta, Birmingham, Charleston, and Louisville. :) It is very exciting and I am looking forward to seeing all of these places when we interview in December and January, and also looking forward to seeing friends nearby!!!

Here is a pic from the AR v. GA game two weekends ago. We had a blast!!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Application "in the mail"...

Today I was very lucky and got one more day off of work! To make the day somewhat productive and not a total waste, I finished everything I could for my application and went ahead and submitted it! I think I almost had a heart attack when I was pressing "submit"...It is very nerve-wracking! There are some parts of the application that you can go back and modify, but some that you cannot change after you submit. I am still waiting on some LOR (letters of recommendation) so will have to add those later. Here is the list of places I have applied to so far. I can still add some if I want.

UAMS (AR Children's Hospital)
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Emory University (Atlanta)
Medical College of Georgia (Augusta)
University of Louisville
Duke
University of Oklahoma Health Science Center Program (OK City)
Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston)
Vanderbilt (Nashville)
UT Southwester (Dallas)
University of Missouri at Kansas City

We will have to wait and see where I get interviews from now!

What We Did Saturday...

School Update...

I PASSED STEP 2!!! At least the first part! I got my score for Step 2 CK back in mid August, and I was very happy with it. We traveled to HotLanta last weekend for the second part of Step 2, the clinical skills part. It was interesting, and I am glad it is over! This is the test that is taken in a "clinical setting" where we have 12 patients to see, and we have to "diagnose" them and tell them what we want to do next. The "patients" are really actors. The best part about going to take this test was that I got to the Flannagans! It was so good to see Terri and Chuck and so WONDERFUL to finally get to meet Knox! Here are some photos:

Currently I am working on my application for residency. I just finished writing my personal statement, and I'll probably submit my application by the end of this week. The nice thing about the application is that even after you submit, you can continue to add things to it such as letters of recommendation, which can take a while to come in. Once I submit it, I'll be sure to post the list of places where I've applied.