Feels like Home

So yesterday I walked out of our cave of a classroom and into the bright (80 degree!!) sunshine and I just knew I couldn't waste such a beautiful day studying. So, instead of coming right home after class I drove to Golden for a run along the creek. I loved it. There's not a thing I can do on this whole planet that makes me feel happier and more alive than running along Clear Creek in Golden with the (somewhat nauseating) smell of hops and barley wafting through the air and the sound of running water in my ears. A little eighty degree weather and I forget all about how much I've hated the cold in the winter and get to thinking about where I someday want to make my life permanent.

On days like yesterday I get a hankering to open my own practice in Golden, find a community of people who could really be my patients and not just a face that's about to have an intubation tube down its throat. It's days like yesterday that make me want to go into OB/GYN. I could see it now.... My own fertility clinic, complete with accupunture (do you have any idea how easy it is to get certified to do that when you have MD behind your name?), therapeutic massage and yoga, and birthing suite. It would be a really fulfilling life, especially if I could find partners to run it with me. However, there's a lot between here and there. And the idea of an OB/GYN residency is so daunting it almost makes me want to knock the idea right off the table. Also, to go into fertility treatment, you need to do a three year reproductive endocrinology residency, and there are currently none of those in Colorado. It's a long road to starting your own practice, then you have to hope and pray you'll make the investment worthwhile. It may not be as great as it's made out to be.

Of course, I could always still go into anesthesia and live in Golden....

I think the only place the decision will be made is on the wards in my third year. I'll end up loving something, the other will go by the wayside. In the end, for all my contemplating-while-running yesterday all I really got for it was a good workout, a lot of stress relieved, and a cherry pink sunburn. Damn. Totally worth it though.

Oh yeah, and we got to go to see the Avs play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs!!! It was a great game too! J'Adore Theodore! And the best part? My Avs won 5-1!!! Here's to winning on Thursday! Fingers crossed!

Well, There's only about 7 weeks left until summer (less than that even!) and that makes me happy. We're starting on the pulmonary block and it goes for three weeks. If it goes really well, the pressure will be firmly off for the kidneys, which is my ultimate goal. I want to be able to learn as much as I can about them (because they are pretty important) but not to have to worry about every miniscule detail just to honor the exam. It's funny how med school can do that to you, make you miss the forest for the trees. All I know is, it will seem completely trivial to know how many potassium ions are exchanged for sodium ions in the distal convoluted tubule of the kidney if someone comes in with high blood pressure and I don't know how to treat it.