Pontificum Scriblerus

Ignore the above "pun" as the ramblings of a very tired test-taker who has had it with the very word "boards." What I was trying to convey by using such a terrible play on words is that taking the GI boards was torture. However, it is over - for now. I walked out of that indescript building on Devonshire Street thinking, okay, THIS is when they all will surely find out that I have been faking it all along. As I posted on FB for all to see: for 40% of the questions, all the answers looked right. 40% none of them looked right; 5% were about nutrition - and anything with the word "selenium" in it was taking a hit for the team. For the last 15%, I just simply had no clue and picked "a." The next day, when I rejoined reality, I had some crazy amount of patients to see, and faked them ALL out by getting it done. It was the same building where I took the medicine boards a mere 4 years earlier. Has it really been 4 years? That's a really long ...

My family and I packed up our belongings and moved for the 9th time in the last decade. So, after a brief happy period living where I always thought I'd live, I've moved progressively further away with each uprooting. We had an F town, then half hour west past the boroughs, and now, I'm in absolute no man's land! It's not quite the Cape, it's not quite Rhode Island, it's past the South Shore... It's the hole inbetween. Furthermore, I have landed squarely in the woods. I mean, there is a veritable jungle outside my door. The house we got is this little box-like cottage with windows all around, which, by the way, was especially fun last Sunday during hurricane Irene. Enclosed in our little box, watching the trees bend, and the backyard get littered with what used to be mighty branches, I felt like Dorothy, whose little trailer was about to be blown off to Oz. Incidentally, we were in the hurricane hotspot of the heaviest power outages and largest a...

So, incidentally, Munchkin turned one. It was about a month ago that this happened. And I still really can't believe it. It is completely and totally cliche to say this, but, oh my god, where did the year go?? I mean, forgive me, but cliches do come from somewhere; they come from things that happen over and over. And no matter how many people told me, over and over, that time flies by, and that they grow up too fast, I still cannot believe HOW fast! I had a squealy little meatball, and over the last year, he has matured into an intelligent, fully functioning, very opinionated infant - toddler, now! - with likes, dislikes, and a distinct personality. For example, when he was about 7 weeks old, my mom and I dressed him up in a little red suit and took him out to Zaftig's. I put a little red sox hat on him, because it matched his red jumper, and I'm one of those crazy moms who matches her infant's clothes to, like, his receiving blanket. (life is better when esthetic...

I have a cold. Actually, this is the mother of all colds. We've met before - at least twice this year - but I was under the impression that the mother of all colds takes a vacation during the summer months. I guess I was incorrect. What happened was, we went to a party this weekend. Well - no, first, there was an insane heat wave, and air conditioners took over the world. Then, there was a party. I got all dressed up in a fuscia cocktail dress and espadrilles, did my hair, and put on the fancy perfume. I don't even remember the last time I did this, so I was pretty excited to recall that I have a fun-loving, let's -get-out-of-the-house side. I had probably about 3 glasses of sangria, which was probably enough to put me over the edge and make me do some embarrassing things, like laugh really loud and make inappropriate commentary about perfectly innocent strangers. And, of course, immune system-wise, the sangria almost surely made susceptible to legionella's eage...

It's July 15th - originally, before baby, I would have been 15 days old as a full-fledged gastroenterologist, my fellowship having ended. I keep thinking about the same time 4 years ago, when residency was ending, and comparing it to now. Back then, it felt like the world was ending, and now, I'm sort of just... floating along. Relieved, almost. I was also talking to someone this week, and I exclaimed at one point: Man, I miss being a resident. And the other person said, Wow, that is a really sad statement. But it's true, residency was fun. Fellowship, on the other hand, has sucked. So, this led me to think and compare and contrast some more, and try to figure out exactly what has made this so bad, hard work and personalities notwithstanding. There are just so many things. First of all, as a resident, I solidly felt backed up by the attendings. We had their trust and benefit of the doubt, no matter the issue, be it a crazy ER attending trying to admit everyone, an unreasona...