Big Sky Day 9

Erin and me on the chairlift:


Backyard wonderland:


More snow! And more medical students. So now there are 3 students and 2 residents at clinic and it works out pretty well. Been seeing a lot more sports injuries as the powder has been grabbing skiers and messing up their knees. Quite a few gnarly fractures and ligament tears. Not so many laceratations, dislocations. Still making a fool of myself in front of the residents but I'm slowly getting better at figuring stuff out.

So you remember how I found a Montana version of Tyler? One of the new students is definitely a version of Scott. I'm in good company. And then the other medical student, the girl, she reminds me of Alina.

Been getting my legs back -- I can feel myself using my back again when I ride, and I last almost 3 hours at a time now. Doing a lot of hiking around in the snow, too. I can recognize elk tracks and raccoon tracks and stuff now.

Glamour-shot in the backyard:



*UPDATE*
so TIRED. good day today, went nuts. Headed to Corral for some $7 burger and PBR.

Big Sky Day 8

It's dumping! 20" maybe overnight. Woke up and went snow-shoeing around the guest house property and by the time I got back inside my tracks had already started filling in pretty well. Dr D picked me up around 10am and we got to clinic where the new resident was getting the orientation tour. I'm really looking forward to my ride break today.

More pictures later.


*UPDATE*
I'M SO TIRED. It was like mashed potatoes out there - total Tahoe style. My back leg is burning and I caught my nose and got

rolled more than once today. It was so much fun! Love me a powder day. No pictures from ride break - too exhausted.
also on a side note: Dr D just got a call - new student has arrived at the cabin.

Big Sky Day 7

Went out today! A bit warmer because the clouds have returned and are trapping in some heat. Maybe upper 30s today. snowing big fat feathery chicken feathers this afternoon. Awesome. My body is starting to remember how to ride.

Missed my shuttle this morning but managed to get to clinic on time. Pretty uneventful day -- until our last patient, this poor kid is out here on day 1 of his 10 day visit to Big Sky from Indianapolis. He was boardsliding a box and landed on his hand -- broke 3 metacarpals. He even had the shortening of the 3rd knuckle when he made a fist. Surgery for sure.
Today is our first day without 2 of our residents. Now we're down to one and two medstudents (including myself). And today is Ben's last day so tomorrow we're down to one and one.



My sweet prison, where I wait for patients:


Me looking not excited to be here (very attractive):

Big Sky Day 6

The halfpipe beckons:



I took it easy today. Skipped the hill and took the shuttle to town and picked up some Tylenol and cough drops, then ate a fantastic breakfast (grilled swiss and provolone on texas toast with grilled onions and tomatoes and home-made sausage) at a local café while I waited for the shuttle to the clinic.

It was gorgeous today but no pictures! Clinic was nuts and I was busy until after 6 (usually clinic ends at 5). Grabbed a ride home from Ben (a South Dakota/Montana version of Tyler) and now am sitting in bed eating blueberry scones and listening to PTI. I could watch TV (today I figured out which channel is the Food Network), but it’s in the other room and I think I want to go to sleep early today.

New students may show up tomorrow! Exciting.

Big Sky Day 5

The view from about mid-mountain:

Lone Peak!




In other news, I think I’ve got a pharyngitis but I StrepA-tested myself and so far negative.
Also my left trapezius is tightening up. My boots are crushing my left medial malleolus, you can see a dusky bruise developing. Shins are tender but I’m not as worried about those.
And I’m developing a pirate-face again, yeah!

Other than all this I’m doing great. And you can probably tell that really I’m excited about the goggle tan. T’will be my last for a long, long time. Of course, I’m being responsible and slathering on the sunblock because leaving my face unprotected would be stupid, but I think the wind here is just burnishing my chin to a nice leathery shine. Awesome.

What did you think of all my pictures? Today was the first bluebird day in a week of snow. The clouds finally cleared enough for me to take some snaps of the peak – 11,600 ft! I went a little picture crazy. I’m still out of shape enough that I get winded from doing 2 runs. Taking pictures gave me an excuse to stop. 2 runs, 5 minute break. 2 more runs, 10 minute break. 2 runs, hot dog from Yeti Dogs (yum! I should have taken pics of that) and an iced tea. 2 runs, and then back to clinic to see 1 patient and sit around blogging until closing time. Awesome awesome awesome. Nothing much to do today so I took my pulse-ox and it was 97%. Rad, considering it was a 93% on Monday (my first day at altitude).

I’m starting to get some of my old form back – but I’m leaving the pipe until the last week. No point breaking myself one week into the rotation, right?

Also I have been seeing moose and those curly-horned rams and also elk everywhere. I’ll try to be quicker with the camera when I’m walking around. And I want to do some shopping in the village tomorrow! No car, so that means lots of time on the bus.

Me and my toes in the trees:


Me not looking too excited about being stuck in the trees:

Match Day photos for you

3/19/09 Match Day and the Meeting of the Parks and Kims

Big Sky Day 4

Hey so I added some pictures to the previous posts

Life is going pretty well, got a ride from Ben (the only other medical student left) up to the clinic and had a great morning riding around on the easy and intermediate slopes before seeing some patients this afternoon.

I'm a little concerned that I'm too stupid for intern year. Today I got mono and influenza mixed up in my head multiple times today. And I think I mixed meningitis in there too. You know, all those stupid viral teenager diseases.

I also can't remember the knee and shoulder exams.
Definitely time to start reading again. Crap. I've made myself look stupid in front of one particular resident multiple times in a row. Ugh.

ADDENDUM @ 4:22pm
actually been seeing more patients today! A finger, a shoulder, some mono, and some other stuff.

Big Sky Day 3

Here is a picture of Dr D's cabin:



I'm unsurprised to wake up all sore today. I should have done some yoga last night. Instead, I think I remember touching my toes once in the shower and calling it a day.

My roommate from Vancouver left at 7 this morning to face the 15 hour drive back home. It's already a little sadder to be in the guest house by myself -- she was real easy to get along with. So this morning Dr D gave me a ride to a small village near the bottom of the road to Big Sky (he had a meeting there) and I hopped onto a free shuttle to the village at top where the lifts start. I had enough time for a long easy run before coming in and starting clinic.


All the snow from last night and yesterday has quieted down and this morning was bluebird. You can still feel the crust under about 6 inches of soft new snow if you really dig in over the wind-swept spots. But mostly it's just fantastic riding. I stayed low and in the trees -- am thinking about getting a hot dog from Yeti Dogs at lunchtime and then making my way up to the very top today. It was too windy yesterday for me to attempt it but today might be the day.

There's also a huge pipe that keeps taunting me -- I might leave that for another day when I have my legs back under me.
Also I forgot my clean socks this morning and had to fork over $18 for a new pair so I can ride today. Looked for good hats but mostly all the shops have been cleaned out.

I keep taking pictures but forgetting to upload them! I'll do it this afternoon before clinic is over.

Maybe.


















4:05pm OW*OW*OW*OW addendum
Smacked into a tree today! Nothing happened except I felt embarrassed and called it a day. Also my feet hurt. I feel like Cooper. Oh well, excited for tomorrow!

Big Sky Day 2

Got in last night around 8:30. Bozeman is a fantastic place. I am staying in Dr D's guest cabin and grabbed a ride from another medical student up to the clinic to work today. I'm sitting in the lounge right now waiting for patients, pretty much feels exactly like OSF.

Yesterday Dan dropped me off at the Peoria airport and I flew up to Minneapolis/St Paul on a teeny tiny airplane that looked like it had gone to war. Its body was made out of small metal panels which had rivets tacking them down in place. It looked like some kind of deranged raggedy andy doll. I sat in a row with one seat on my side of the plane, and two on the other. Flight was bumpy and boring, and my layover in Minn/StP was only 2 hours. Had a good lunch and hopped onto a much larger and nicer plane to Bozeman, and this one was rocking the whole time. I actually felt airsick, which is not something that's happened to me since I was 7 and taking an 13-hour flight to Seoul.

I ended up missing my shuttle to Big Sky from the airport last night due to some of my own stupidity, but managed to find a last-minute ride with some nice ladies who had hired a mountain taxi. I paid way less than I would have had to pay the original missed shuttle. Nice. Like I said, got in around 8:30 or 9. My new roommate made me dinner (awesome) and then we went to bed. The cabin itself is pretty much a tiny 2 room deal; 1 bedroom, 1 kitchen/living area. Most importantly, it has 2 bathrooms. Rad. Of course it is decorated in that 70s mountain style that reminds me of every Tahoe CST cabin ever. Especially the one I shared with Ta.

Clinic is a 6 room deal including an Xray room (where students are expected to develop their own films, hmmmm), a casting room, and an eye room. So far today I've misdiagnosed a broken ankle (distal fib, nondislocated) as a sprained ankle, and I've felt up some poor mono kid's posterior cervical nodes. And then I went riding for the rest of the day.

So far my schedule has me taking some runs from 8-10, working clinic from 10-1 and then riding from 1-4, or riding from 10-1 and working from 1-4. Everyone then gets together and finishes up the 4-5 clinic closing duties. Not bad, right? The catch is that we work 7 days a week (no hardship). There's another 4th year doing FP in Canada and one doing Anesthesia. 2 residents are EM residents and 1 is PMNR. Everyone is really nice, and relaxed.

Tonight the plan is apparently $10 all you can eat fried chicken buffet with dollar beers at the 320 Ranch. I will continue taking pictures of all of this but probably nothing posted till tomorrow.


Here are some pictures!






so crowded, huh?

Detroit Rock City

MATCHED.





awesome.

Feeling a bit mixed now. Waiting was terrible but I was so confident we would end up in Chicago that I didn't agonize much. Was mostly fighting boredom since Friday.

But now I'm all turned inside-out. Now I understand why most of the other kids had that crazy look in their eye this week. I can't believe I'm going to Detroit. DMC is one of my most favorite residency programs but you know I had already started looking for apartments in Chicago, see? I'm not sure I can believe this happened.

Also, I know that the most likely reason Dan and I didn't Match in Chicago is because I only put one Chicago program on my Match list. I just didn't get the number of interview offers I expected. Maybe my grades weren't good enough? Chicago programs tired of Illinois medical student applicants? Adding to my guilt is that all of Dan's top choices were in Chicago -- he went on 7 interviews in his home city. Because our applications are tied together in the Couple's Match, when I don't get offered a spot in Chicago, then all the Chicago hospitals that may have wanted Dan are categorically toasted. He did his part to get us Matched in Chicago, see?

Detroit is new and foreign to both of us. Zero friends/family there. On the other hand, hardcore training and cheap cost of living. Plus the suburbs of Detroit are posh and gorgeous. I'm going to live near a Whole Foods and fancy designer boutiques! Plus I am living next to Canada. I now realize that Canadians passing through downtown Detroit from Toronto must barf at how horrible the US is in comparison.

Dan and I are not working at the same hospital. He is going to this great hospital that Google Maps says is 9.9 miles away from mine. Dan's also going to be training in Emergency Medicine and we will both be done in 3 years. I am sure the time will rip by.

check out my rash

awesome.

I Matched!

... somewhere. Which, I assume, means that Dan Matched somewhere, too.

Got an email today around 11am letting me know that I Matched somewhere and will not have to participate in the Scramble.

Now all I have to do is wait until Thursday to figure out where I'm going.

working 3 hours a day is killing me

Match Day is next week.

Match Day is next week and everyday I wake up and think about calling in sick to avoid going in to the hospital.

Match Day is next week and all I have to do is wait 8 days to know all the answers to my questions about the next 3 years. Where will I need to look for an apt? How far do I have to move? How much money will I have? Will I be able to continue borrowing my dad's Dodge? How many years will Dan be in residency? Will I be working with Dan?

Match Day is next week and my parents are coming and will meet Dan's family for the first time.

Match Day is next week and it makes everything else going on here pretty irrelevant.