4th year is flying by already. Nick is already 2 weeks into his second Emergency Medicine Rotation- which also just so happens to be his "away" rotation. We're very fortunate that "away" for us, simply means an hour commute, not a different state, however, it's still much different than the 5 minute drive he's used to!
Neither rotation has disappointed. I've said it before, and so I'll simply say it again, he loves the Emergency Room. Sure, there are moments of frustration where patients present to the ER unnecessarily for things they really should be going to their primary care doctor or urgent care center, BUT there are also TONS of exciting and real trauma situations that Nick loves. Thankfully, the latter makes up for the frustration of the first. He's done sutures, lumbar punctures, seen countless gun shots, done chest compressions that helped saved lives and unfortunately done them to no avail where the patient passed, he's placed orders, completed all sorts of patient exams, and really just been able to feel less like a student and more like a doctor.
He is currently rotating at Genesys Hospital which is near Flint, so as part of his rotation he had to do one ride-along with EMS. This meant he got to ride along with someone who was a cop and EMS for the night. Basically, Nick thought it was awesome. He texted me halfway through the night that he wasn't in an ambulance but was in a cop car and felt like Castle. If you've seen the show, you can pretty well picture EXACTLY what Nick was like. At one point they went to a breaking and entering situation. Nick was told if the guy ran he could either stay in the car, or run after him with the cop. I think that's pretty much every little boy's dream... and it doesn't change when they grow up. In the couple of minutes he was waiting to see if the guy ran he came up with lots of plans for his "chase" and how he was going to take this guy down. Unfortunately, the guy hid in the shower and did not run and so we'll never know how those plans would have played out...
In other BIG news... Residency applications are all submitted!! WOO HOO! That process was nuts. With so many students flooding the system to apply at the same time, the system straight up crashed. You'd think they'd be prepared, but apparently they were not. It took a full 24 hours for them to get it back up and running so that the majority of students could actually apply. It wasn't stressful at all...
Interview season is already off to a crazy start. Nick has already hit his quota of interviews for his backup and is making progress on the EM front despite a delay in his application while he completed his rotation in September. We were a bit nervous that the delay would really put him behind, but so far, so good! Fingers crossed he gets a few more of those, but all in all, the madness that is accepting/declining, traveling, and interview madness is in full swing in our house. It's a chaos that I couldn't be more thankful for :)
