The Grapes of Wrath...

So, here I am... continue to truck my way down the path of my Clinical Year. I'm at mile 7 of 10 and lately, I've certainly been experiencing that combination of feeling like I've come so far, learned so much, grown in capablity and skill + sensing that I still have so far to go.
Only three more rotations remain for me now:
Rotation 7: Internal Medicine here at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, CA
Rotation 8: In-patient at Tuality in Hillsboro (Portland), OR
Rotation 9: Acupuncture and OB/Gyn at Wenzou Medical College Hospital Center CHINA
Rotation 10: Elective Rotation- MYSTERY????? (though I've requested either Internal Med or the NICU... we'll see! Stay tuned!)
So I'm yet again, in a new location. Ryan came to Portland to help me make the drive from Oregon to California and we had a GREAT roadtrip. We broke up the 20 hour drive with several awesome stops along the way. First we drove to Redmond, OR where Ryan's Grandpa (aka "Papa") and his wife Linda live. Linda's grandkids are all big BMX-ers and they basically worship the ground he walks on ;) But for real, they are all so cute and they really do look up to Ryan so much. It's so cute to see them bombard him with questions and show him all of their riding pics on facebook. We had a great time hanging out with everyone for dinner. Sadly due to our time restraints we couldn't stay long and had to take off at 8am the next day.
There really itsn't much to say for the the drive from eastern Oregon to Northern California. It was baren, flat and boring. BUT after 8 hours we finally got to Sacremento/San Fransisco area- where we met up with our friends Amber and her husband Matt. Amber is a Medic in the Airforce and she and Ryan used to work together in the ED on base at Elmendorf. Matt is a maintenance crew chief and used to work on the F-22's in Alaska, but since transferring to Travis Air Force base he's off fighter jets and on the bigger transport planes. Apparently he really misses working on the jets- I don't blame him. ;)
We had such a great time catching up with them. They are in base-housing and Ryan and I were both saying we can only hope the base housing in Virginia is half as nice as their place! We went out to dinner and had hung out at their amazing place afterwards where we enjoyed a bottle of wine from the vineyard where we'll be having the wedding this August. Ryan and I stopped by the winery on our drive in Oregon and got a little tour of the grounds by their weddings manager. It was awesome! And after smoozing and tasting some of the wines we'll be serving at the wedding, she surprised us and sent us home with a bottle! Since Amber will deploy in June and won't be able to make the wedding, it was nice to bring some of it to them.
Again, our stay was an all too short overnight-er before we carried on to our final destination in San Diego which was 8 hours away. Again... boring drive... how did we drive through 18 hours of the state of California and NOT see any amazing vineyards, wineries, ocean coast or Napa?!?! And the traffic in L.A. - I thought Ryan was going to have an anyerysm and rightfully so. I truly don't know why ANYONEEEEE lives there.
Arriving in San Diego, we were welcome by my bestest cousin Joe and his girlfriend Marci- who graciously let us crash in their home despite the fact they were in the middle packing for a big international move coming up next week. Joe - host with the most that he is - of course instantly whisked us away to one of his favorite watering holes :) After wine-ing and dining in the hip university area, we all slept it off til 10am Sunday morning and after a pot of coffee and a recovery breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, we were recharged and ready for some tourism. Joe was our inside naturalist guide to Point Loma look out point. Where we also scaled down the cliffs to the tide pools and saw all kinds of sea urshins, starfish, shrips, crabs and seals!
I had to take Ryan to the airport all too soon on Sunday, and he flew back to Anchorage as I got settled in my new digs - thanks to Blair and her connections with a friend from college. I get to live with Blair's friend Jessica and her husband Adrian and their ADORABLEEEEEEEEEE 2 year-old son, Gabriel. I could NOT be more blessed with this living situation. Jess and Adrian are such FANTASTIC generous, fun, welcoming people and they are such great parents - it's nice to witness such a dynamic and fun young family and I am SO lucky they were willing to welcome a complete stranger into their home.
So far, I have one week under my belt in Internal Medicine - and I am LOVING it. My preceptor is a wonderful and BRILLIANT doctor... though a little scatterbrained and nutty-professorish ;) I'm learning a LOT. Internal Med is so interesting because you're not just dealing with health people who just happen to sprain their ankle or get a cold... these people might have those things happen to them, but they have a schlew of med's and prior/chronic disease processes to consider in your management and treatment of them. It really makes you rack your brain- I can feel it growing all ready!- and of course will keep you all posted for the adventures (and mis-adventures) along the way.
Love you all!
xo
Mego