Milestones

This picture is of me late at night on call earlier this year.

And this picture is hours later (about 4 am), still awake on-call that same night. Yawn! Appropriately blurry to represent how you feel at that time of night on-call.

Only two more nights on-call (including tonight)…

And then, I am done with “primary call” forever. In other words, after two more nights of being on-call I will have completed my nights on-call not as a “chief” resident. No more patient phone calls, working up consults, pre-rounding on patients, being bossed around by senior residents…and lots more OR time. After being on call hundreds of nights (over 100 my intern year, probably another 150 over the past three years) I am almost done with that chapter of my life!

What’s next? Tomorrow I begin my first work-up on a patient for major jaw surgery where I will be the primary surgeon on the case. Come June, I will be the “clinic chief” in charge of all of the elective surgical cases for the entire month. Come July, I will officially be a fourth year resident! It is strange to think how fast and also how slow the past four years have gone by.

I look forward to helping newer residents learn. I look forward to new experiences in the OR and clinic.

I am also a bit nervous. But I think I’m ready!