Christmas Vacation

I know Christmas is long behind us, and this will be a short post. I just wanted to celebrate a great Christmas season and throw a few pictures and memories into the internet before I forget them all.

One thing you may notice as I put up pictures is that I cut my hair significantly shorter than it has ever been. It was growing out a little too fast and I wasn't ready to deal with long hair again. I guess it also doesn't hurt that I was hoping it would make me a little more memorable on the interviews.

Anyway, it was my first married Christmas and although it doesn't change everything, it did feel a little different. It was the first time decorating our space together for a holiday, so we set ourselves a strict budget - I'm terrified of becoming a Christmas hoarder. And then we bought a perfect apartment-size tree, lights and garlands, got out the nativity sets and the ornaments I've been getting each year my whole life and when we were done it looked like Christmas.

We also went on a date to a ballet school production of The Nutcracker at Lake Arrowhead, which was adorable and great.

Date nights!

As I mentioned in my residency travels post I wasn't actually home that much of December, but after most of the interviews were done and I was terribly exhausted, John met me in Oregon and we spent a luxurious 10 days of holiday joy with my family. 

The house I grew up in. I always liked the clouds, it made it seem like another world.

Baking with Emma

Awesome wrapping job. Also Shannon has a wicked awesome onesie.

Chaucer and Emma.

We walked Chaucer on the property when it wasn't raining.

Family Christmas.

I got out the clarinet I haven't played in at least 5 years and Shannon arranged us Carol of the Bells based on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version that we all played for our church Christmas service. 

There was one day we watched Harry Potter 5-8. That's a lot of hours. A lot of knitting happened.

I don't have any pictures of our New Year's Eve and time with John's family in San Diego, but that was also really valuable. It was a very family oriented holiday and I really felt so blessed.

In the end we had to come back and return to real life, but by then we missed our friends a lot and it was exciting to return and see everyone. 

There's a lot to be thankful for. 

So Merry Super Belated Christmas and I hope your year is great so far. 

Tachy Med Student: Interview Travels

Happy New Year!

Okay it's the 21st and we're three weeks in. I celebrate a birthday month, a Thanksgiving month, a Christmas month, why shouldn't the new year get a whole month?

As you may recall, I'm working on becoming a doctor. I graduate this Spring and I'm going into Pediatrics. As a fourth year medical student, in order to get a residency position for next year I got to travel all around the country and interview with different programs. It was an absolute whirlwind.

In all I went to 9 different states and a few more programs in the past few weeks.

I wanted to share a few highlights from my trips, photo style. As I have not yet matched, I won't be sharing my opinions of programs or my rank list, but I went to a lot of beautiful places.

It all started with this bag my friends gave me for my birthday. It came with me everywhere. It's giant but fits perfectly under the airplane seat. With this and a small carry-on suitcase, I never had to check a bag. However, since I flew Southwest which checks bags for free, I frequently checked it anyway so I didn't have to roll it around on my layovers.

This is the view from Morning Report at one of the programs. Wow right?

The southwest was sunny and clear with some gorgeous sunsets.

Snow all over in Utah. Also a surprisingly vegan friendly place, which I loved.

Oregon's amazing tram ride. Of course it felt amazing to be home.

Boston has really tall buildings, and while I was there I got to see Tiffany. She used to live there and just happened to be visiting the same time as me. It was so nice to have her show me around. Bridge over the Charles.

I tried to walk at least a little in every place I went because I think it gives me the best sense of it. Sometimes I took a latte with me.

One truth that became very true in my life is that the buildings all blurred together. I honestly can't tell you where this is. I know about how I felt in different places and whether I had a good sense about living and training there, but if you showed me a picture of each hospital I went to, I could not successfully identify them, guaranteed. That means I just have my priorities straight right?

[Whatever program this is, please don't hold this against me.]

I felt like Eloise at the Plaza in this hotel that the program paid for in Ohio.

There was snow on the Grapevine in California when we went through this past week. Usually it's not a very pleasant drive, but this is the prettiest I've seen it.

I have very few photos of interview food, as I felt extra weird taking pictures of my lunch in such a professional setting, but I certainly had lots of good meals out while I was travelling [and I few I'd prefer to forget]. 

At most places, they gave us breakfast and lunch (each interview day is about 8 AM to 3 PM). Sometimes if I wasn't sure I'd have a hotel breakfast or grab some oatmeal:

Jamba Juice Fresh Banana Steel-Cut Oats and Coffee

Hotel buffet: Oats, peanut butter, melon and strawberries.

Although I was fed lunch on my interview days, I frequently had travel days and had a great time finding a vegan-friendly restaurant in all these new cities.

Tofu, veggies, french toast in Oregon.

Adzuki burger in Tucson, AZ

Chicken melt also in Tucson, AZ

And...Chocolate Cake also in Tucson, AZ (I flew in and out of there for my Arizona trip so had a couple meals at this place)

Whole foods breakfast bar. Phoenix I think?

Whole foods salad bar and soup. Really couldn't tell you where.

Thai in Boston, MA

I just wanted to share that interview season, while indisputably exhausting, is a blessing. At what other time in my life do I get to travel the entire country imagining what my life might be like if I moved there, see amazing hospitals doing great work and meet piles of people who want to do the same thing.

And after most of them were done and I was bone tired, I got to head home to my parents' house in Oregon for Christmas. My husband came with me, and relaxing there was that much more enjoyable because of the whirlwind.

As I said, I finished my last interview a week ago, sent all my thank you notes, and after some consideration, I certified my rank list and got this email:

You probably can't read that, but it says "Confirmation of Certified ROL" meaning, I'm done! I am of course allowed to change it up until February 20, but I have faith God will send me where I belong regardless of what order I put the programs in. I've done my best to be honest with myself, but messing around with my list isn't going to change where He wants me to go, so it feels good to let it go.

So now that there's nothing left for me to do but wait for March 11 (finding out if we matched) and then March 15 (finding out where we matched) it feels like a strange balance of relief and nervous anticipation.

It would be easy to be anxious, but I'm trying to just enjoy my electives, my friends and this time when my worries are out of my control.

Missed you, see you soon!

Post Call Eating Moments

Happy November everyone.

I'm currently on the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and I just worked for 12 days straight.

I'm started this post yesterday from the post call brain haze.

Then I got distracted, lay down in my bed and woke up 3 hours later. Haha I guess. Post call is unpredictable.

For those of you who are new, I'm a medical student (hi classmates!) and that means that sometimes we have rotations where we take call every 4 nights. We come in at say, 6 in the AM and leave at 10 or 12 the next day - 28 or 30 hours later. If you're Katie you might be scrubbed into surgery that whole time, but she's crazy (I love you.) I sort of love call because I think we learn a lot in the middle of the night, but it's very confusing for my sleep cycles.

Usually I try to sleep either right when I get home or later in the afternoon. I recover from it a lot better if I sleep at least a little instead of staying up until it's time for sleep on a regular day.

I also have less energy for cooking when I'm post call, and my body craves quick-energy sugar. Frequently in the past the post call days are the days I eat far too many cookies or scoops of peanut butter.

Oh sugar.

Lately I've been working pretty hard on making better choices so I don't have to have that overeating guilty feeling.

I know I don't make the best choices when I'm tired, so it's helped a lot to decide an outline for what I'll eat before I get tired. What's been working for me lately is defining 3 meals a day with 1 afternoon snack, so that I don't snack just whenever it feels like a good idea because I know my signals aren't trustworthy. It also works pretty well for me to not eat during the middle of the night even if I'm up the whole time. My body's not used to meals then, and I don't get hungry. In the past I used all the running around as an excuse for sugar, but I feel much better now when I'm not eating that way. And I'm pretty steady on the coffee - I'm completely addicted (withdrawal headache, crankiness, the whole works) but it keeps me running through the night until I get the chance to sleep.

I wanted to have a real picture of my food for you, but I can't find it on my computer right now.

As an example though, yesterday I was post call and I had soup with quinoa for lunch, an apple for snack and pumpkin risotto from this great slow cooker book with spinach salad for dinner.

Sure it's 100% the opposite of my cravings, but it's been liberating to conclude that my cravings lie, and actually this is what I need.

So happy November. I'm trying really hard to post more, but if the PICU keeps me too post-call and tired, I'll see you in a couple weeks.

Married in Real Life

Hi all.

It's been a time of transition for me lately. I finished up my infectious disease rotation in Ohio and came home about 4 weeks ago. For the first time, my brand new husband and I were living together and trying to have work lives at the same time.

My handsome husband.

I've been on a preventative medicine rotation this past month that's taken me to all kinds of experiences.

I went and got a massage, I did immunizations in the public health building, observed pediatric speech testing and therapy, epidemiology modules from the CDC, watched documentaries and did yoga, all in the name of class. It has actually been a very busy month. With new experiences every day, it was med school as usual. Instead of settling into a routine, I think the norm is the lack of routine.

The advantage is that there's been weekends available for personal development, no overnight call so I'm well-rested, and that's been great for these first "real life" weeks of marriage. The difficulty is that we've also had a lack of routine in our new married life and it's already hard to predict how much we'll see each other. John works sometimes from home and sometimes commutes 1+ hours to work, so his time is unpredictable too. I expect that the complicated schedules will only continue, at least for the forseeable future.

I don't regret going to Ohio for a month, but looking back I probably wouldn't do it 3 weeks into my brand new marriage. No permanent damage done, but it was kind of hard on both of us.

Being flexible is a skill I've been working on, and there's been varying levels of success. Sometimes I have to be very conscious that I'm suddenly feeling anxious when my expectations for time or schedule aren't met and be intentional about making the best of it.

This morning the power went out while I was in the pool for my workout. They wouldn't let us stay because it was dark at 6 am and if we'd drowned they couldn't see us, which is fair.

But I was only 8 laps in, all wet and chlorine-y and kind of mad that my workout plans were thwarted.

So I prayed for some peace for the frustration and anxiety that produced and went running when I got back home. And it was great.

Expectations can be adjusted. That's what I'm learning.

Also John and I did a good portion of 21 day vegan kickstart in the past few weeks and I have food photos and reviews that I'll be sharing soon.

And since it's my first October post (I know right?) happy Vegan Month of Food!

And happy Fall. And all of that.

Last Ohio Weekend

I'm in my final week of my pediatric infectious disease elective here in Ohio so on Saturday I'm on a flight home. That means this past weekend was my last here with Shannon and we made it count. After I woke up on Saturday and applied to residency Shannon and I went out for a celebratory breakfast at Butter Cafe. It's a vegan-friendly place close to the University of Dayton and the blueberry vegan pancakes are delicious. 

Also my plate ended up being free because the first batch they brought out weren't quite cooked. I know that might knock a place down on most people's rankings, but I was in no rush, and the second (free) plate tasted awesome. 

After Church we had a pretty relaxing afternoon and then went on a fancy sister date to the Dayton philharmonic, which I loved.

Sunday we ran a 5k for the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Southwest Ohio. It was hot and I was reminded that I have been woefully slacking in the running department. It was fun though, and it was really fun to be there with Shannon.

And now with just 4 more days in the hospital, I think the time will fly and I'll be back home before I know it. 

Happy Monday!

Applying to Residency: September 15

Yesterday was September 15.

On any other year it's just the middle of September.

Fall is in the air.

It's Prince Harry's birthday. Also Heidi Montag's.

However, this year I'm a fourth year medical student and September 15 is the first day that the application service for residency [ERAS] is available for submission to programs. It opens to start adding information during the summer, but this is the first date programs begin accepting the applications.

Therefore, yesterday morning I applied to residency.

I've filled in information about my experiences, research, publications etc. I got a professional picture taken, wrote a personal statement and asked for letters of recommendation. This application has been a point of stress over the past few months and yesterday I paid my exorbitant fees and sent it on its way.

For those of you not as familiar with the medical education process, it's been 4 years of college, now I'm in my fourth year of medical school, and residency starting next July will be 3 years more. (This length of time varies by specialty). It will also be the nice switch from paying to be there to getting some $ - after 8 post-high school years, I'm ready. I've updated the Medical Student Life page with a more complete description of the match process under "The Match."

Letters of recommendation may be assigned to programs later, so I chose a couple to transmit for sure but still have some that haven't come in so I'll be adding them, but otherwise it's complete.

I'm applying to medium-large academic pediatric programs. I have a few "reach" programs that most likely will not interview me, but mostly I applied to programs that I think are realistic for my application. 28 in total, which some people say is a lot for a U.S. graduate going into Pediatrics, but it's hard to know how competitive I really am, and mostly I want the chance to see a lot of different programs and be very sure about what I like. I

John and I talked along the way about the location of each place, because wherever I end up matched, he'll have get to live there too.

And now there's just the waiting. Be sure you'll hear about it quickly if ever an interview invite arrives. I would expect one mid-October at the earliest, but wouldn't be surprised if a few trickle in much later.

Not to worry though - I have a spreadsheet!

Stay tuned - the residency application journey is just beginning.

Haircut!

Since I wanted long hair for my wedding, I've been putting off cutting it short all summer, even though it was kind of driving me nuts. This week I made an appointment and Locks of Love got a solid 10 inches of my hair. This is the third time I've donated it, and it feels as awesome as usual. 

Thought I'd share a picture:

Before

[clearly these strands are kind of tired]

After!

[forgive the grainy iphone pics]

Wooo healthy hair!

And for more information on donating your hair with Locks of Love check out their website here.

Have you ever donated your hair?