I should be studying right now, but someone is here fixing my shower at the moment, so I'm distracted. So since it's been awhile since my last post, I figured I could play catch-up while I'm waiting.
Today is my last studying day. I'm writing the US exam on Thursday and Friday in Buffalo. It'll be two 8-hour days - fun! Although I was thinking at the beginning of it all that I should have started sooner (and I probably should have), I'm feeling okay about things now. Next week I'm back to work after 2 months of being off. That'll be a bit of a switch! I've really appreciated the fact that I've been able to sleep through the night every night for the last couple months - it really improves your outlook on life! So now it's back to the intensity of things for a little while. I'm in the ICU, so it won't be quite as intense as a surgical rotation. And the beautiful thing about it is that when we've been on call, we get to go home at 8 a.m. the next day, instead of staying till 12 noon! So we do 24-hour stints instead of 30 (because we also start at 8 instead of 6 or 6:30). I'm a bit nervous about being on call for ICU. In the daytime there are lots of people around, but at night it's just me...and the nurses, respiratory therapists, and whatever other docs are hanging around the hospital who are all very helpful and experienced. So I'm not really alone, but it's still a bit scary. I'm sure it'll be fine after the first few days. It's just the experience of starting something new and different and figuring it all out.
I'll be there for 2 months, and then Nov 27 will have the surgery on my left hand. Then I'll be off work for the month of December to recover...and, as it turns out, to take a little trip to the other side of the world to a certain Asian country that I'm particularly fond of. Yup, going to spend Christmas with my good friends over there. It'll be a short trip, because I'll need to spend the first couple weeks after surgery in Hamilton to make sure everything is okay, and then I'm back at work (in surgery!) on Jan 2. So I'll be there for 11 days - it'll be a 2-week trip in total. I'm thrilled, though. I sure wasn't expecting that to be thrown into these circumstances. But I wouldn't have had the opportunity if I weren't off on sick leave - it's hard to get enough time off in residency to do things like this.
Speaking of sick leave, I was talking with my program director a couple weeks ago, and it turns out she doesn't think I'm going to have to make up this time at the end of my residency - she thinks we'll be able to work things out so that I meet all the requirements in 3 months less time, so that I finish in June 2011, as originally planned. Bonus deal, and way more than I was expecting (I think there's a scripture about that somewhere!).
My right hand is getting better by the day. It's been 4 1/2 weeks now, and I can do pretty much everything in my day-to-day life, including driving my stick-shift car, which I attempted for the first time yesterday (my friend who has an automatic but can drive standard kindly switched with me for a couple weeks until I was ready). It's been cool to experience the process of healing. I'm amazed at how our bodies heal themselves (I mean, how God heals them...through the processes that He created). Surgery doesn't heal anything - it cuts and traumatizes tissues in the process of cutting out what is causing a problem. If our bodies weren't equipped to heal, the outcome would be disastrous. Things would just fall apart, get infected, etc. But God has created all the mechanisms for healing in our bodies (and of course provides His own grace and power, too), so that surgery ultimately results in healing, rather than more pain and trouble. I've known all this in my head, but I've actually been kind of inspired and elated as I've experienced it for myself in this small way. The first night after my surgery I was in so much pain that I couldn't move it at all, and tying the string at the waist of my pyjama pants that night was an impossibility. By a week or so after, I could move it pretty well without too much pain, and could do some things with it. And gradually I've been able to do more and more, to the point where I can now write, drive, cut vegetables, brush my hair and my teeth, clean my apartment, etc. It's not 100% yet, but it's pretty good. I think I could probably go back to surgery now (if it weren't for my left hand) and be okay, though I'm glad I have some more time, because it's still a bit stiff and sore.
Well, Lulu (that's his name) has now finished fixing my shower...at least I hope it's fixed (he came last week and fixed it for 2 days and then it broke again). So now I should get on with studying.
Ciao.
