A Tribute to 3rd Year

This is Matt's LAST official week of third year!!! I am sooo proud of him. He's ready to be done. I think he's especially ready to be done with this rotation (Ob/Gyn). I haven't been too disappointed that this one hasn't been his favorite. :)

As we close up this exciting chapter of our lives, I thought I thought I'd put my interviewing skills to work so that you can all hear Matt's thoughts on third year.

Me: "So, Matt, what was your favorite moment of third year?"
Matt: "My favorite moment of third year? ummm.... this coming friday."
Me: "That doesn't count... it was a past tense question."
Matt: "ummm..... I don't know .... .... .... how many of these tylenol pm's am I supposed to take for a headache?"
Me: "I don't take them for a headache, I take them to go to sleep."
Matt: "ok. .... well, I really liked when I was on ENT and got to see that total laryngectomy. that was pretty sweet.... ... ummm... other than that it's all kind of a blur. But I really liked being able to talk with mrs. x & pray with her. (this was matt's severely depressed/suicidal patient who he
talked with a lot while he was on his psych rotation) ...and being able to hug that guy's daughter and tell her I'd pray for her dad when we found out he had cancer."
Me: "So, what was your favorite part of ob/gyn?"
Matt: "Ummm... the smiles on the mom's faces after they have their babies."
Me: "aww. What about watching the babies?"
Matt: "They're not happy. They're always crying."
Me: "But you don't like just watching them?"
Matt: "Nope, they're covered in cheese."
Me: "What about when we have a baby and it's covered in cheese?"
Matt: "There's always adoption."

Third year is tough for medical students - it's typically the hardest year. They work VERY long hours, without pay and with very little appreciation, and they have to study as well. They put up with residents and attending physicians who are not always nice, not always interested in teaching them, and who sometimes yell at them. They do a lot of paperwork and other "scutwork" that has nothing to do with learning medicine. They do dirty-work. They talk with their patients and make sure their needs are attended to, without taking any of the credit. They love their patients really well.

On top of all of that, Matt got to help plan a wedding this year!! So he deserves LOTS of extra credit! He was great at helping me when I was stressed out this year, without complaining about his own stress. He's been a fantastic husband as well! Always making time for me, even when he's so busy. :) I'm so blessed, and very proud of him. :)

So, where do we go from here? Fourth year starts next week, and Matt's first rotation is going to be an "away" rotation in E.N.T., since that's what he's interested in. And, if you know Matt very well, you would be able to guess that he's doing it in DENVER, CO. :) There's a great ENT program there, so this will give him a good opportunity to see first-hand what the program is like. He'll get to meet the attending physicians, meet the residents, and just see how the program runs. I'm sure they will all be super-impressed with Matt, too! I get to go up with him for his first weekend there, and then I'll go up for a weekend when he finishes the month. We're going to drive through Amarillo to see his parents, Colorado Springs to see my parents, and Castle Rock to see my Kevin and Kelly, so we're excited about that part too! The sad part is that I'll be all alone in Dallas for almost the whole month of July... But this is a great opportunity for him and I'm glad he gets to go.

Congrats on (almost) being done, Matt!!!!

Pastime

So, Bobbie made a comment on matt's previous post in which he mentioned his favorite "pasttime": skiing. Bobbie pointed out that it's actually not a "pasttime" but a "passtime". Well, after some speedy internet research, I've discovered that you're both wrong, sadly. Skiing is actually a "pastime".

pastime

–noun
something that serves to make time pass agreeably; a pleasant
means of amusement, recreation, or sport: to play cards as a pastime.
[Origin: 1480–90; earlier pas(s)e tyme, trans. of MF passe-temps]

—Synonyms entertainment, hobby, diversion, avocation.

Just thought I'd clarify... :)

hydrangeas

Today when I got home from work, there were beautiful hydrangeas in a vase on our kitchen table! They look a lot like the ones we had in our wedding, and Matt picked them out all by himself. Isn't he great?!?

Our leftover spaghetti tasted much better with such a nice centerpiece on the table :)

I think that it is really easy for 3rd yr med students to feel sorry for themselves and to be prideful. I think that I am married to the most wonderful girl there is.  I think that skiing is God's gift to us and the greatest pass time of all hobbies.

summertime!

We got to do some summery things this weekend!... On Saturday we went to Matt's aunt & uncle's house in Arlington. They went out of town for the weekend and offered for us to come use their pool! We spent the whole afternoon there, which was really fun. Matt studied for quite a while while I played in the pool - it reminded me of hot El Paso summertime in our swimming pool. :) (I missed the family, though!) Matt put the books down for a good part of the afternoon and we really enjoyed our time... we got to play with the dogs, too!

After driving back to Dallas, we went to Gloria's for dinner on the patio -- it's our favorite place in Dallas for fajitas. :)

Oh, and then we watched an episode od the Office when we got home... I think I've got Matt hooked!!!

We had a pretty good Sunday today too... church was good and we had a good time with our small group this afternoon. I've decided Sunday afternoons aren't my favorite part of the weekend, and I need to do something to fix that.... I seem to spend a lot of time cleaning up the house, working on leftover charts from friday, etc... I think I generally just don't have the best attitude on Sunday afternoons. :( but we'll work on it. :)

the first post!

Welcome to our first blog - I'm so excited! I hope it serves as a way to keep in touch with people, and keep me from developing any new t.v. addictions. :)

We've been married for about TEN weeks now! Exciting, huh? The wedding and honeymoon were even better than we could have imagined. and marriage is great! I think we're kinda getting the hang of it. ... I've been doing a lot more cooking than I've ever done before (thanks to lots of shared recipes from friends), and matt's probably been doing a lot more housework than he's used to... :) When we got back from the honeymoon I felt like we'd never get everything unpacked, but we've been nicely settled for a while now and it feels nice and homey in our place. We even got our new comforter this week!!

In other news, my brother, Kevin, just got married about a week and a half ago! He married Kelly Tan, an awesome girl that he met at A&M. We're so glad to have her in the family. Their wedding was in The Woodlands on May 31st and it was beautiful! It was really fun to see friends and family so soon after our wedding!

kevin and kelly

proud parents!

sisters

As far as our everyday life goes...We've settled into somewhat of a routine... Matt studies in the evenings and I work on charts from work... or slowly work on other projects I have going on. Matt's on his Ob/Gyn rotation right now, so he's been getting up super-early in the mornings. Ooooh, interesting fact: Did you know that 1 out of every 200 babies born in the US is born at Parkland Hospital?!? Isn't that crazy? Good thing they have such experienced people like matt there to help out when needed! (He's actually learned some spanish this month: "Empuje, Empuje!!")

Matt is definitely ready for 3rd year to be over. He officially has a little over 2 weeks left and then he gets to start 2 months of ENT, which is the field he wants to go into. He'll get to learn and do a lot more on these rotations... hopefully not as much busywork as this year.

My job is going well too. I'm getting into the groove and don't feel nearly as overwhelmed as I did in the beginning. This means my schedule is getting busier, though, so I often have paperwork to finish up at home. Hopefully I'll get even faster with more experience. Even though it's tough at times, my job is very rewarding and I'm thankful for that. :) I love my patients and my co-workers.

Here is a picture of my boss, Dr. McMillin - she's GREAT, and one of our nurses, Starr.