The First Cut is the Deepest

My little boy has officially turned into a big boy. He got his first haircut this week. I knew it was inevitable seeing as his beautiful curly quaff was starting to turn into a frizzy mullet. And since he's the ring-bearer in a wedding in a few weeks, I figured it was time to clean him up a bit. I know a lot of moms who absolutely refuse to cut their child's hair and by two years of age they could easily pass for a member of an 80s hair band. But I've never been that kind of mom who freaks out when my kid gets shots or got emotional over weaning from breastfeeding. And getting his first haircut was no different.

So my husband and I brought him to our local barbershop where my husband usually goes. When we first got there she was also cutting another little boys hair, and I thought it would be good for Killian to see but he was more interested in the candy machine instead. Thankfully this barber is smart enough to have a little TV in front of her chair to try to distract the little guys. It was then Killian's turn and my husband sat him on his lap. We prepared ourselves for a wrestling match, but surprisingly he was really good. The barber took her first snip and gave me his beautiful golden curl so I could scrapbook it (I have a whole drawer of stuff I still need to scrapbook if I ever get time). Aside from the occasional moment where he tried to dodge her, he did amazingly well.

Checking out his new do!

In a few short moments my little guy was done and even looked a few months older! I was more nervous of the barber just totally screwing up and having the shave his whole head- of course I jump to the most drastic outcome- but that didn't happen and he looked so handsome in the end. Now he has a slick new haircut to go with his fancy tux for the wedding. And maybe this "big boy" haircut will bring some big boy changes. I can already see him acting a little older!

My Personal Statement

As a medical student applying to residency you are required to write a "personal statement". Considering we've spent the last four years writing nothing more than notes, which consist mostly in medical abbreviations, it's quite the task to become grammar-literate (not a real term btw) again. The personal statement is the one and only party of your residency application where you have a chance to express your personality. It should explain why the specialty you chose is a good fit for you, what your goals for the future are, highlight your accomplishments, and maybe even tell a story of an experience that helped define the person you are today- all within the limits of one page. A personal statement can actually be quite personal to each student. I know mine is. But even so, I've decided to share it with you all. Deciding to go into family medicine was a huge decision for me, and I hope that other med students reading this can see why I choose this field and maybe consider it for themselves one day.
Enjoy.....

A 44 year old mother of three, I was seeing her for the third time in just a week. It was supposed to be an easy visit, going over the results of her MRI, which came back with “nonspecific” findings. Only now her headache was getting worse despite the medications she was taking, and she started experiencing weight gain, extreme fatigue, dizziness, unbalanced gait, and nausea. I knew at this point that it was more than just a headache. I rechecked her blood pressure, which was still elevated. After the doctor I was working with came in and evaluated her as well, we decided it was best to admit her to the hospital for further workup.

After some additional testing, she was diagnosed with metastatic small cell carcinoma and died just two weeks later. It was only my second rotation as a third year medical student, and I certainly did not expect to experience my first patient death so soon, and on a family practice rotation no less. But then again, I didn’t expect to diagnose someone with temporal arteritis or make home visits to a woman with progressive ALS. Here I was thinking that family practice was just managing hypertension, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia and I came to realize it is so much more than that.

When I first started medical school I never would have imagined that I would be drawn towards a career in family medicine. There are so many specialties out there to choose from. I couldn’t imagine just being a family practitioner. That’s the dilemma, though, there are so many specialties. How can you chose just one? At the end of third year I found myself so intrigued by absolutely everything, with a few exceptions, that I couldn’t make up my mind. I wanted to do it all, and looking back on all the rotations I had done, it was only during family practice that I got to see the entire spectrum of medicine. It was the most satisfying experience of my third year. The connections I made and relationships that were built with my patients during that six week block were unmatched during any of my other clinical rotations.

Family Practice is one of the only fields of medicine where you get the chance to treat the “whole” patient. Every other specialty focuses on just one system or part of a patient, while in family practice you actually get to see the patient as a person, get to know their story and their background. That’s what I love so much about it: you have the incredible privilege of being allowed into another person’s life. So much of getting to do this relies on one’s ability to communicate well and build trusting relationships with your patients, an attribute I consider one of my greatest strengths.

Being a family practitioner allows you to be not just a doctor but also part of a community. Meaning, your social responsibility is not just to patient care, but also to the town or city you work in. When my family opened a restaurant seven years ago, we wanted it to be more than just a place to get breakfast. We wanted to be a part of the community. Each year I’ve organized auctions raising money for David’s House, ran “Toys for Tips” events, and collected donations for the local soup kitchen. I never did these things because I had to, but because it just felt right. I wanted to use our business to bring the people of our neighborhood together and work towards a common cause and help those who are less fortunate.

As a future physician I plan to continue to be an active participant in the community that I work in. I look forward to starting new projects, helping out at local events, and being involved in health education. Whether it’s giving guest lectures at local schools about nutrition or staying late hours to work at the flu vaccine clinic. I want to be the doctor who takes the extra minute or two at the end of a visit to counsel my patients to quit smoking so that they don’t get lung cancer in the future. I will be the physician who leads by example and practice what I preach by showing my patients how to lead a healthy lifestyle. Above all, I will be the kind of doctor I’d want taking care of my family.

It Takes Two

Any married couple will tell you that it takes a lot of work to keep a marriage going strong. Sure, it's a little easier when you know you married the love of your life and your soulmate, but a lot more than just love goes into making the relationship stand the test of time. My husband and I haven't been married that long, but with both of us going through grad school, moving constantly, getting new jobs, having a child... we're certainly not free of stressors on our relationship.

The hubby and I at the top of Blarney castle in Ireland.

The most important factor in maintaining a healthy marriage and being able to communicate when things aren't going well. My husband and I got to a point at the end of my last rotation where we both admitted to each other that we weren't happy with how little time we had for each other. I find it takes a lot of courage to really admit when there's a problem and I'm proud that we were both able to verbalize this and discuss what we needed to do to fix it. But then again, I'm not really surprised because we've always been open and honest about things from day one.

So after identifying that our lack of actual alone time together was our primary issue, we needed to figure out a way to remedy the situation. I keep having to remind each other that with a child and demanding careers, we're certainly not going to find any extra hours in a day and it's a matter of taking advantage of what little time we do get. So we threw the parental guilt aside and arranged for the little bug to go have a playdate with his slightly older girlfriend (by older, I mean three months), while we spent our day off together.

Now it always amazed me to have a "day off". I mean, what do people do when they're not working? Or better yet, what do people who don't work do? Well, for a couple like us, who didn't want to spend much money or go very far, we opted to simply go out to lunch. Then we were going to see a movie, but nothing really good was playing. So we had an even better idea of buying a movie, blowing up our air mattress in our living room, and getting comfy while enjoying our new flick. It sounds so simple, like something we could have easily done any day, but really it was some much needed relaxation (without a toddler screaming in our ears or jumping all over us).

Not to say that quality couple time always requires us to drop the little guy off with a sitter. Today for instance, I'm lucky enough to have the afternoon off. So we're going as a family to our local museum. The point is, just to make sure you take advantage of the times you are together and not just sit in front of the TV or on your computers. I know it's going to be a struggle entering residency and working a lot more hours, but keeping a happy marriage is an important part of being healthy and also being a good example to my child.