Tuesday, April 21, 2015

a med school update....end of m3 year

on friday the mr officially finishes his m3 year of medical school. this past year has been the most intense, longest, hardest, and most exciting year yet. it is a big deal that we survived this year so i figured it was time for an update! you can read about our last couple of years here, here and here (and even before we started med school here)

this past year the mr has been doing rotation after rotation. a rotation is 4-8 weeks of working in some specialty. he did a little time in pediatrics, neuro, surgery, medicine and a few others thrown in there. there were some very long months where he was working at least 6 days a week, 15 hours a day, for 8 weeks straight! but luckily we survived all of that. i really only had a couple of weeks where i called home crying. 

we had heard a lot about 3rd year and honestly it was better than i expected. spence always put gwen and i first which really helped. he has done fantastic in all of his rotations so far! he has learned so much and has really enjoyed being in the clinical setting. i think this year, despite being super busy, was a nice change from day to day book work and classes. 

so whats next? spence will start his m4 year which is full of more rotations (but this year he gets to choose fun ones and ones related to his specialty choice), another round of boards, more research, residency applications, residency interview and the long awaited MATCH DAY!!!! 

what does he want to do? we're still not 100% sure on this one but...he does have a good idea. we've ruled out a few specialities like neuro, general surgery, ob/gyn, derm etc. but still have a few on the table. it has been such a fun process working through what the mr wants to do and what he would enjoy, excel at etc. no matter what he chooses i know we have an exciting future in front of us. personally i have a speciality i think he should go into but i'll save that until he decides for sure ;-) but at this point we can still be bought so if you want to choose his specialty you can for the price of our med school loans (they aren't that high....wink wink).

where will we be after this next year? this is one question i get asked a lot and one question i so wished i had the answer for. unfortunately we won't know until match day next march. at times it kills me not knowing and then other times it's exciting. we have a list of our top locations. honestly most of them are back west. we want to be closer to family. but we are being open minded. he'll apply to a lot of residency programs (probably around 50) and with that many we'll have to apply all around the country. so i guess we'll just wait and see.

do we still like chicago? oh baby we do! at least i do. i always knew i was a city girl and that i would like living in a big city but just recently i've discovered really how much i LOVE living in the city. with thinking about residency and moving out of chicago my heart breaks just a little bit. yes i want to be closer to family, yes i want to pay less in rent, and yes i do want a bigger place/parking spot. but i love city living. i would be very content living in the city forever (as long as we had the funds for a bigger place and a yard...which won't happen for some time...boo). but most likely that won't happen. so for the next year we're living up our time here. we've got a good list of things to do and see and places to eat. oh the food! i am going to miss all the fun places to eat out. this will most likely be our last summer in the city so we have big plans to take advantage of all there is here to do in the summer!

our day to day life is pretty much the same. the mr wakes up early to go to work. i spend my days with gwen, working a few hours for my same company, and we both stay busy with our callings (spence is still in the bishopric and i'm in the relief society presidency still). on the weekends that spence has off we like to go out and do fun things, adventures to new sites, date nights with friends or just the two of us, and show gwennie girl our little world. 

so here's to our last year of medical school!!! the past 3 years have gone by so incredibly fast. i am so excited for residency and for our future but i know i will miss our medical school days. we've made the most amazing friends, had some incredible experiences and have learned so much about life. i am so grateful to be on this road with my mr. it's a fun adventure and it just keeps getting better. 

m4 year...bring it on! you'll be full of fun surprises, planning, applications and adventures. and i can't even wait! 

just a few pictures that we send each other during the day | the mr. rocking his white coat at the hospital during a night shift // my life now....dress shirts for days // gwen likes to take selfies to send to her dad // a dr. selfie of the mr. on a private jet on his way to pick up an organ (poor picked on med student right???)


4 comments:

  1. I love you! Loved reading this although I already know it all- duh #bestfriendbonus

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  2. i feel like i've been so spoiled this year with brennan time. i won't lie, this makes me a little nervous for third year. but i love that i get to follow in your footsteps just two years behind so you can experience it all first then give me advice. love you!

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  3. I looked at your blog tonight. I love it and want you to continue blogging. I thought it would come up on my blogger if something new was written. Not so. Sorry I didn't know you had posted. Love you!

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  4. Just so you know, I totally miss your blog! :'(

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