Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The decision is made. Babies it is.

Wow, I suck at blogging. I'm not just bad at it, mine is the blog that ends up at the very end of the sidebar list with links to people's "friends & family" blogs because I haven't updated in 2 months. Meanwhile, I don't even have links to the blogs I follow because I'm that lame at blogging in general. Yet I love reading other people's, and I get sad when they don't update. Hypocrite. I think that's the name for that. And now, outfitted with my brand new iphone 4 (because I have medical things to look up...of course), it just makes the excuses all the more lame.

Also, I suck at blogging because I suck at taking pictures. And who wants to read a blog without pictures? It's like reading a novel; and we all know that what people really want to read is one of those board books with quipy, rhyming one-liners that are outnumbered by adorable illustrations all in a "safe-to-chew" package for easing toting to church...

So. Anyways. Here I am. Still no baby pictures. Still no life-altering news. And really in no mood to rant or gush or make a scrapbook out of my life. Sorry if that's what you wanted to read.

Right now I'm doing my family medicine rotation in Safford. It's amazing and puzzling and foreign all at the same time. I've decided that family medicine is for the healthy that are paranoid because really what family docs specialize in is preventitive care. That must be why I love my family doc.

So family medicine is definitely interesting, but not quite my style. Which is actually a welcome relief since up to this point I’ve been having a really hard time deciding what I want to specialize in. But not anymore! I’ve decided that I’m going to specialize in (drumroll, please….) OB-GYN! The one truly unique thing about Safford family medicine is that they still do their own OB-GYN because the town is so small, and although I’ve been seriously considering OB-GYN for awhile now, these past few weeks have cemented it. I’m keeping track of how many deliveries I do in my life. My current total is 6. Not bad for a 3rd year who hasn’t yet done her official OB-GYN rotation! Now, before you start to groan and wonder how any sane person could actually choose this specialty, let me say that this feels right for me. Somehow, I know this is what I’m supposed to do. Ironically, when I started medical school I immediately eliminated two major specialties because I thought they would equal a death sentence for ever having a normal family life: Surgery and OB-GYN. Clearly I was extraordinarily ignorant at that point since OB-GYN is actually a surgical specialty. And it wasn’t until a few months ago when my dad kept asking me if I had yet considered surgery that I realized I didn’t want to consider it. Because I knew that if I did, that’s what I’d end up doing. It took a lot of soul-searching to realize that I needed to put those options on the table…that Heavenly Father is driving this ship, and I have to let go now. I have to trust.

So I’ve realized that OB-GYN is perfect for me. I honestly had no idea what an OB-GYN did until just recently. You’re just a glorified midwife, right? WRONG. OB-GYNs do basic primary care for women over the lifespan (menarche to menopause and beyond), delivery babies of course, manage high-risk pregnancies, perform surgery on women with cancer of the cervix, uterus, ovaries, or any pelvic organ, perform incontinence surgery, diagnose and manage infertility, perform perinatal surgery in utero for fetuses with problems requiring surgical intervention, advocate for women in situations of domestic violence or with psychiatric issues, are experts in contraception, take care of any woman with a complex medical problem who gets pregnant and much, much more. So there you go. I'm thrilled.

Next up...where to move for residency?