The autumn after surgery

The best way I can really describe things at this point in my medical training, is by comparing it to a change in seasons.  Summers are full of activity, work in my case.

My surgery rotation was 3 months long.  3 months of going to sleep at 11:40pm, and getting up at 3:30am some mornings, 4:10am other mornings.  3 months of blood, sutures, scalpels, Bovies, surgical cures, closing stab wounds, being meticulous about vitals and patient information, sterile technique, and long, painful, uncomfortable hours of retracting, and not sleeping, eating, or drinking enough.

As physically hard as Surgery was, I would much rather work on cases for a long time than just type patient notes on a computer for hours at a day and juggle medicines and doses, and obsess over differential diagnoses and ordering thousands of dollars worth of tests.  Not to mention how you don't have to stress out about non-adherence the same way internists do.  I feel like you have less obstacles as a surgeon.

For me, I've entered autumn.  Things are slowing down, I get to rest, and the weather around me grows more pleasant.  I have time to look at the sky, admire how the clouds above stay suspended and float in quiet, effortless grace.  I have time to tend to the basil and pepper I grow on my balcony, and time to notice how the plants have grown and matured over the months.

I have time to sit down with my guitar and hear chords and notes ring and hang in the air, time to be my old self.