The Year in Review...

Good-bye, 2005. It's been interesting. Here's a look back at the highs and lows of the past 12 months.

January

The year started off with winter fun up north with my soon-to-be in-laws. From there, the CaRMS tour. I hit Sudbury, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Hamilton, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver in the space of 10 days. Craziness. It was a blast. I was snowed in three times (January is NOT the best month for air travel in Canada), spent an unscheduled second night in Winnipeg and narrowly missed having to sleep a night at the Edmonton airport. I was hosted in the 'Peg by a fantastic friend whom I was meeting face-to-face for the first time, and had a blast chatting over wine well into the evening. I met lots of great people, and realized that part of what drew me to emergency medicine to begin with is the amazing people. I also realized that Vancouver is an absolutely beautiful city, and I'm eager to return there soon to spend some time exploring.

Honestly. How could you NOT love this city? If it weren't for the exorbitant cost-of-living, I'd be there in a shot.

February

I had the first two weeks of this month off, and then dove into 4 weeks of Hematology clinics. Hardly taxing. I used the time to discover my inner Martha Stewart. My significant other got to come home to lovely meals and enjoy a clean apartment every day. A definite departure from my usual.

March

March 1st was Match Day. I'm not going to re-hash.

http://drcouz.blogspot.com/2005/09/match-day-results.html

That and three weeks of gastroenterology rounded out my month. Good times.

April

I got engaged. Hee hee. I'm sure other stuff happened that month, but it's kind of overshadowed by the engagement. I still think the boy is crazy to want to put up with me and my crazy job for the rest of his life but hey... HE asked ME. In fact, my response to his sweet, heartfelt proposal was to throw my arms around him and tell him he was crazy. I did, of course, eventually accept.

May

I finished medical school. Granted I finished with a hideous rotation on general internal medicine where I got a shitty review (I was told that my knowledge base was lacking and I wasn't 'engaged' with my patients) but I was redeemed by getting honours on my internal medicine exams. Screw you, Dr. W.

Then, I wrote the LMCC's-- a glorified day-long multiple choice exam that you need to practice medicine in Canada. Really, just an excuse to squeeze another $1200 out of the already-impovrished medical student. Thanks. I passed. Very anticlimactic.

Then I graduated. Eleven years of university education come to a close. I can feel the student loan collectors breathing down my neck already.

June

I don't even remember what I did for most of this month. Met equally bored friends for coffee, went for long walks with my dog in the bush, went to the gym, met other friends for patio drinks and generally enjoyed the last of my freedom.

Went north. Got bit by a mosquito. Got lymphadenopathy, flu-like symptoms and neck stiffness, followed by weakness of my right arm. Became convinced I had West Nile Virus. Serology proved me wrong. Apparently leaving medical school doesn't cure the med student hypochondria.

Moved to a new town on the first day of a brutal heat wave. Thank God for large, muscular male brothers-in-law. I didn't lift anything heavier than a houseplant. Which was DOA thanks to making the trip in the 40 degree heat. Next time, I'm going to try to move in January.

July

I was lucky to draw a pretty easy start to residency. I started off with a one month rotation in emergency psychiatry. It was slow, but kind of fun. Now, in retrospect, I really wish I had started blogging back then. So many stories...

August-December

At this point, the months just started blending into each other. I worked a lot, this month on obsetrics and gynecology. I started blogging. I started to think about changing programs. Anyone who has read my blog knows what happened for most of the rest of the year. I did two months of obs-gyn... loved it. I did a month of anaesthesia... hated it. Did two months of surgery... well, you know the story. Tried to keep my sanity and my non-medical life while surviving residency. Sometimes I managed to do this, sometimes I failed. Life is a learning process.

The intern year... six months down, six to go.