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Mott Children's Hospital is decorated with patient art--this is my favorite in the entire hospital!

So I’m sitting at Sweetwater’s coffee house in A2 [www.sweetwaterscafe.com], where Sarah and I have been spending a ton of our time these past 2 weeks!  She has been busy with finals, and I have been studying for my peds shelf.  However, as of 2:42pm yesterday, I am…an M4.  Whoa.  I knew this day would come at some point, but I didn’t expect it to come so quickly!  The last 2 months of M3 year absolutely flew by, and now I have one year left until graduation!  It didn’t really sink in until today when Lauren Ehrlichman [almost graduate and fellow blogger] ran past me and yelled out, “Congrats on being an M4!”  Hard to believe it’s here.  And big props to her for matching into Ortho @ Harvard–she is well on her way to an amazing career, and we will miss her energy and smile around the UMMS campus.

The last 2 months have been absolutely crazy-busy and really fun.  I started my Pediatrics rotation [which is 2 months long] on the inpatient side–specifically Cardiology and general pediatrics.  It was an amazing month, but definitely one of the busiest months I have had.  It was really enjoyable though–I had amazing colleagues to work with who really cared about the patients, and also took a lot of time to teach.  Contrary to popular belief, kids are not just “little adults,” and the approach to them is QUITE different.  I had thought for a long time I would become a pediatric cardiologist, but that had left my differential before I started this Peds rotation.  However, I really loved what they did, and I know that the cardiovascular system is definitely one of my favorites [so it’s a good thing it is so important in Anesthesia]!  I had some really neat, life-changing experiences that month too.  I scrubbed into my first heart transplant, which was absolutely stunning.  It is an incredible talent that can be a transplant surgeon, and I am in awe of the program at Michigan.  It was a humbling experience to be involved, and I am so grateful I had the opportunity.  The human body is an incredibly powerful yet delicate machine.  Due to our abnormally high amount of patients [a common phrase when anyone walked into our room was “Wow, I have never seen that many patients on the Cardiology service!”], the month absolutely flew by.

I then spent 2 weeks in primary care at Livonia, 1 week on Newborn, and 1 week in Specialty clinics [i.e. Hematology/Oncology, Pulmonary, etc.].  All of the weeks were great, but I really loved my week on Newborn.  Our responsibilities consisted of examining all the new babies born in the hospital in the last 24 hours and educating the parents about what to expect when they go home, nutrition, safety, etc.  It. was. awesome.  All of the babies were cute and it was a really fun week.

After finishing that last shelf exam, I am now on vacation.  It’s odd to transition from going 24/7 to…nothing.  For example, today I took 2 naps, took 2 walks, had dinner with old Hope friends, and read a book [for fun].  I am definitely going to enjoy it, however, as I start in the Cardiovascular ICU as a subintern on May 9.  This is a month when I will basically function as an intern–writing orders, admitting patients, responding to nursing concerns, etc.  It will be one of my most challenging months of the year, but I am really looking forward to it.  This particular ICU is run mainly by anesthesiologists, so it will be good to work with my future colleagues!  Couples with the M4 CCA [Comprehensive Clinical Assessment, basically a test of our clinical physical examination skills] and a wedding, May will be a busy month!

Congrats to the almost-doctors graduating on May 13–we will miss having them around, and we have some big shoes to fill!  Rawrz!