In the realm of education, again, I can’t believe medical school is almost over.  I’m happy say that I passed all of my required board exams for medical school (Step I and II), and my application for residency is in.  Interview season has started and 4th year really seems to be as awesome as people report it to be.  I had my first interview earlier this month at Akron General and I really liked their program.  My next interview is here in Dayton at the end of the month.  My rotations have been enjoyable, emergency and ICU so far.  In 4th year you have the experience of 3rd year to know where you fit in and the small amount of medical knowledge and experience to actually suggest plans for patient management.  Now - where you are, who your residents are, and your attending’s comfort level – all play into how involved you can get.  Fortunately for me, I’ve been able to be quite involved with my patient’s care.  Regardless, I’m still terrified, despite my excitement, for that big day – 215 days from now – when they place a funny “hood” around my neck and say “go forth and write orders.”

That brings me to my last topic – my current rotation in the ICU.  Coming in I expected to be seeing the sickest patient – obviously it’s supposed “intensive care unit.”   I had myself prepared for this and it hasn’t disappointed.  The first 2-3 weeks went much as I expected them to be – sick patients, learning to manage/adjust vents, and writing lengthy involved management plans where patient’s had a seemingly endless amount of medical issues to discuss.  We responded to all the codes throughout the hospital and I began to see all the end of life issues involved with critical care.  One thing I was frequently thinking about was “should we even be coding this person” – now that’s an entire discussion separate from today’s.  What is do want to talk about is withdrawal of care – and not in the sense of being right or wrong, but the experience of it.  During this rotation I’ve come face to face with it – and I quickly realized it was much different that losing a patient during a code or palliative care on a patient who came to your service as a DNR.  Here is a circumstance in which you take away the supportive care that you’ve initiated and been using to keep the patient alive.  Then all you can do is sit and watch, as family says their goodbyes, and you stare at a monitor in the station knowing these are a person’s last heartbeats and breaths.  You think about things differently when you know that fact – what is this patient experiencing, was there anything else they wished they would’ve done, do they regret something.  These are all things you could read about on a cheesy motivational poster in high school or middle school, and I thought I’d grasped them before – but I don’t think I really had.  Growing up in a funeral home I saw plenty of cases where life was cut short under tragic circumstances, but sitting there watching it – even in the case of an elderly person - was much different.  Either way – it’s certainly had an impact on how I view my life.  Not in a way that will drastically change what I do, but how I enjoy and react to the everyday things in life. 

Ok, rather than continuing to ramble on, I’ll let you get back to your life – just remember not to take it too seriously or you might enjoy it as much!

On the fitness front, the 365 day challenge starts in 7 days.  After I committed him on this very blog – Jason formally accepted via text message earlier this week.  I think he’s planning to run the Akron full in Sept. and I’m hoping he’ll run the Pittsburgh full with me next year.  I’m also planning to run the Tough Mudder next March.  http://toughmudder.com/   It’s a 10-12 mile run with 18 obstacles through it.  Two of my med school classmates are probably going to run it with me – it should be a good time.

On the med school front, I’m currently at the Dayton VA for psychiatry.  It’s interesting, but not a career for me.  At least I’m getting a better idea of whom to admit to psych from the ER and who not to.  I was also robbed by the NBME (national board of medical examiners) today – registering for the two sections of my step 2 was $1,645 not to mention I have to travel to one of six or so major cities to take the clinical skills portion – probably Atlanta for me.

Last weekend we were having some good ‘ole country fun at a classmates grandparent’s farm.  Campfire, food, clay pigeon shooting, 4 wheelers, and tornado warnings?!  We were cruising through some fields on a golf cart when someone looked up – hey check out that odd cloud.  It was indeed a funnel cloud.  We continued to watch 10 funnel clouds come out of the same cloud bank, but none of them touched down.  Probably good considering that when we initially spotted the funnel cloud it was very very very close to us – as in almost over top of us.

Drop me a comment or email if you’d like to hear about something!!!    rettig82@yahoo.com

Baby Boy?! 13 weeks 3 days

Funnel Cloud!

During my vacation, we spent quite a bit of time back at our parents.  I had plenty of time to golf in between the rain drops, and even went up to the ol’ alma mater Mount Union and talked with some pre-meds.  Don’t worry – I was sure not to crush their spirits.  We also had time to have dinner with my college housemates (minus you Don   ).  During our many dinner conversations, of course running came up.  Out of it came a challenge that is to start May 25th.  I’m planning to run 1,000 miles in the 365 days leading up to my graduation in 2012.  Jason is going to take part and Ryan is going to treat us all to a steak dinner if we complete it – save your pennies Megan.  Here’s a shout out to Ryan too, Megan says Ryan is disappointed daily when he finds I haven’t posted.  Also, I invite anyone to comment to me on topics you want to hear about – for me it’s hard to know what people want to know about medical school and our life.  Don’t worry, I don’t publish comments – just I get them.

1,000 miles 365 days!

So, what else this year?  Amanda and I have been married over two years now!  Now I know that for most people reading this – 2 years is a drop in the bucket compared to your marriage – but just think, compared to Hollywood stars and athletes we’re an ancient couple.  Again, the issue of marriage in the US is an entire post in itself.

The first edition to our family, the ever energetic Doc, will be 3 this summer!  Which in dog year would mean he should be coming out the teenage years, but he shows no signs of slowing down.  We had a dog day for my class at a local dog park and he really enjoyed playing with all the other med-pups.  As the weather gets warmer here we’ll be able to go on more walks – it’s supposed to be up to the 60′s this week!

Finally comes the biggest news – Amanda is 5 weeks pregnant!!!     We’re very excited and we had our first appointment on Friday.  We found out on Amanda’s birthday and promptly drove to see our parents so we could tell them in person.  It was my only full weekend off, so if we hadn’t visited then, we would have had to wait until April – and I would have never been able to wait that long to tell people.  When the time comes, we’ve decided to find out if its a boy or girl, but we aren’t giving out any hints on the name – except for the ones Amanda has already shot down (like Wyatt and Shadrach   ).  We were finally able to celebrate with a dinner out and some shopping last night after a long and very happy week – it was a great time.

And now its time for something I haven’t done in way too long – a nice run outside!!!

This summer brought many more relaxing events.  I was in a high school friends wedding and was able to see and catch up with many people from my hometown and high school.  I was able to visit and spend a long weekend in Wisconsin with the Rettig family for our Christmas in the summer exchange and celebration (despite the Chicago traffic that tried to keep my sister and I from arriving within this century).  My awesome wife and I spent a day at The Beach waterpark in Mason, OH that was both fun and relaxing with the added bonus that we kept from getting sunburned.  Over the 4th of July weekend, we had a cookout the 3rd with Amanda’s parents and then spent the 4th in Pittsburgh with my family at my parents condo.  We spent the day at the pool, seeing the boat races from Mt. Washington and the fireworks that night, were all a great time.

Currently, I have 1/2 a week of ICM (into to clinical medicine) review and exams, as well as a 4 day weekend (next weekend) before getting tossed into the mixer Monday Aug. 2nd.  I start my third year rotations with Women’s Health and have orientation at Miami Valley Hospital.  We had a ceremony to attend last week, basically to tell us “we aren’t in Kansas anymore”  college is over – welcome to patient care, and a friendly reminder that medical students don’t really have work hour restrictions.

Much like the rest of the country, the current heatwave has kept us from hiking too much with Doc because he doesn’t really appreciate the heat that much.  We still frequent the gym and pool, as well as playing tennis a few times.  Well, I’m going to keep moving on this beautiful Sunday afternoon!

On the balcony before the fireworks

Family

Hanging with Guyasuta and GW on Mt. Washington

Everything is going well here.  Amanda is getting ready to start a new job that we’re both excited for, and of course I’m just studying.  We had a great time during our quick trip to Cleveland last weekend.  We stayed with my relatives in Highland Heights Saturday night, and they were nice enough to let us bring Doc along – I think 3 of the 4 family members wanted to keep him .  The marathon was a fun day.  It was great getting to visit with my housemates from college participate with them in the big event.  I finished in 3:43:58 which is a PR for me by 13 mins.  I was certainly happy to PR, but I was expecting to run at/below 3:30, especially when I went through the half at 1:43.  My training paces were at 3:15, but once the achilles and shin splints hit – turned out I just didn’t have enough miles on my legs.  Oh well, it was a beautiful day and fun to be around family and friends, so I’ll keep training and try again.

Speaking of fitness, it happens to be time to head to the gym.  Amanda is taking a class and who knows what I’m going to do – probably a lift and a swim to work out some soreness.  Then it’s back here this evening to finalize the official Joe Rettig Study Calendar .  I’ll try to post some pictures from the marathon when they come up!

In the end, I won’t perform, be a part of, or refer any medical procedures I believe are wrong, sorry sir I won’t do it…

Also just around the corner is the Cleveland Marathon on May 16 – one month away.  My friend Jason (college housemate) and I will be running the marathon that day, while Megan (college/high school friend… also married to another college housemate    ) is running the half-marathon.  The Achilles problems haven’t been back to visit me, but shin-splints have.  I probably won’t be able to run what I was planning to (I cut my training back), but I believe I’ll still PR.  On other running notes, my aunt in the great state of Georgia has decided to get involved in fitness and running!  She’s running the Norcross Corners to Crossing 10K tomorrow!  Everyone should cheer her on tomorrow in your thoughts!  It’s great to hear about other people taking a vested interest in their fitness and I can’t wait to hear about her experience.

Until next time…

Out on a hike.

Later that evening I had arranged to spend time in the ER at Miami Valley Hospital downtown with a third year emergency resident, which proved to be an awesome experience.  I’d really like to spend more time there in the next few months.  It gave me a chance to learn from clinical experience, which sticks better in my mind than book work.  The doctor I was working with was a good teacher and let me see a few patients during the course of the evening.  MVH being downtown and it being St. Patrick’s Day, there was a significant number of drunk people of course, but I was able to see several other types of presentations as well: high BP, overdose/suicide, burns, car accidents etc.  It definitely motivated me quite a bit, and I needed that.

The next day Amanda and I (and Doc) left for Charlotte to spend a long weekend with our Aunt and Uncle there and see some of Amanda’s teaching friends from when she lived there.  That Thursday was Match Day for the fourth-years too, but I wasn’t able to go watch – Amanda got out of work early so we left.  Match Day is when all the 4th year medical students across the country find out where they’ve been matched for their residency training (everyone except a few specialties and other exceptions).  Students preference their programs of choice and programs preference the students of their choice (after and application/interview process of course), and a computer program matches accordingly.  It’s quite a process.  The trip was great though, the weather was nice except for one day of rain, but we were still able to go on a hike that morning.  We also had a cookout one night with friends, and Amanda was able to go visit her old school on Friday as well.  Doc did great with the car ride and being in a foreign house.  Weezer (their cat) was terrified the whole time Doc was there and hid for the most part.  Even though the goal was to relax and get away from school, I mixed in a little bit of studying to keep on course.

We’ve been back in Dayton since Monday night because Amanda has to work this week.  My schedule has been to get a few things done in the apt and study.  It’s much better to be studying Step I without trying to balance a WSU BSOM course too, but that gravy train ends Monday morning.  Well, it’s time for Amanda and I to head to the gym for a bit – I’ll try to post again soon!!!