So, Christmas has come and gone, as has my brief, but excellent trip to Asia. I trust you've all had good holidays, as well. Happy 2008.
I've been back at work for 2 days now. I'm into a 6-month general surgery block at a busy hospital, which is also the regional trauma centre. This week has still been in holiday mode, so there haven't been any scheduled surgeries, clinics, etc - just emergency things. So it's been a bit of a slow start, but I'm not complaining. It's nice to have a few days to figure out how things work, get to know all our patients on the ward, etc, without the usual flurry of craziness. That'll start soon enough.
I think the rotation will be good. I should get quite a bit of operating experience, and so far, at least, everyone seems very nice and very supportive. So I'm optimistic about it. It will be very busy, of course, and I'll be tired, but that's kind of expected for these next years.
My left hand is healing well, though still about 1-3 weeks, I'd say, away from being fully operational. I can do a lot with it, but it's still a bit sore with certain movements, and I don't have my full range of motion back just yet. Shouldn't be long, though, and it is on track. So I'm easing into things a bit in terms of operating, but there are enough people around that it isn't a problem, and they're all very understanding about it.
The other thing is that now I do need to get seriously into studying for my Principles of Surgery exam, which is in early April. That'll be a bit of a challenge, because I'm pretty tired by the end of the day, so I appreciate prayer in that regard. It's a big exam that covers a lot of material, most of which isn't stuff you see day to day, unfortunately. So I'll have to work fairly consistently at it. Shouldn't be difficult, as long as I prepare well. It will be good to get into the habit of reading/studying, though, because I really should be doing that anyways, and I haven't been very good about that up until now. Maybe this will help get me into that habit.
I'm on call at the hospital 24 hours Friday, and what will amount to more like 27 or so hours Sunday. So it's right back into things again! I'm not fully over my jet lag, either, so that's an added factor, though it's actually helped me get up early in the mornings, because my body seems to want to do that naturally, anyways. But I'm still kind of tired. I got back a week ago tonight, so should be getting there. They say give yourself a day for every hour of time difference, and I have 13 hours to change over, and will be confusing my body again over the weekend, so who knows how long it'll take. But maybe it doesn't matter, since residency sometimes feels like a state of perpetual jet lag, anyways! The worst of it is over, though, and I'm functioning pretty well.
Later.
