Hello everyone! I was studying this morning and realized mid-question that it has been far, far too long since my last Dose of Reality blog. Between the whirlwind of the holidays and my new clerkship, I really have no idea where the time has gone! My holiday break was really wonderful…it was so nice to go home and spend time with friends and family. I spent Christmas in Connecticut, made a couple of short trips to New York City and Philadelphia to visit college roommates and my sister, and then rang in the New Year in sunny, warm California on a trip to Disneyland with my little siblings (so fun!). With all the traveling, the three weeks flew by, but it was still a wonderful, refreshing break after completing the first two-thirds of my M3 year!

School started back up with a bang, as I jumped right into my surgery rotation. I'll admit that I entered this clerkship with a more than a little trepidation. Surgery is arguably the most physically demanding and time-consuming of the seven clerkships we rotate through our third year, and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the very early mornings and long hours of standing in the operating room. I'm now six weeks into the rotation, and I can honestly say that I am loving it! I started off on the surgical oncology service, where I saw lots of breast cancer surgeries and melanoma removals. I'm now on thoracic surgery, which has been really amazing so far. The hours definitely are the longest that I've encountered all year, but there is something so exciting about the hands-on and very technical nature of this rotation that makes the time fly right by. I have struggled a little finding adequate time to study, sleep, work out, and relax (sadly the latter two have gone by the wayside a bit these past two months), but overall this clerkship has been a really positive experience, and I will be sad to see it end!

In other news, I have decided to take a research year off between my third and fourth years to do research in otolaryngology. I've been considering ENT as a future career for the past year and a half or so and was waiting to see what I thought of my surgery rotation. After enjoying it as much as I have, I'm now leaning toward this field, and I'm excited for a year off not only to do lab work, but also to learn more about the field and solidify this decision. I can't wait to get started!

Alright, my stack of surgery question books is calling my name once again. My apologies again for the delay since my last post and I promise to check back in again soon! I finish up M3 year with family medicine and neurology and am very much looking forward to having a little more downtime and weekends off once again...until then, enjoy what hopefully continues to be a very mild winter!