Here we go again!

As always, there's not too much time for me to get used to doing any one thing, and right now is no exception! I start my two-month clerkship of "Internal Medicine" tomorrow morning. Just in case you don't know, internal medicine is, it's supposed to be about taking care of people with complex, serious medical problems. They're also known as "internists".

Anyway, I have the first month of the rotation on an inpatient ward at the county hospital, and then I have the second month in the "outpatient world". This is supposed to be one of the hardest rotations of medical school (along with surgery), and one of my goals for the next two months is to decide whether I want to be a "cutter" or a "thinker"--sort of the modern version of the age-old feud between physicians and surgeons. What that actually means is I'm hoping to decide if I want to be a surgeon or if I like internal medicine better.

In addition to that, I'll give you sort of the run-down of what's going on for me in my career planning right now... exciting, I know! My 3rd year is exactly 2/3s of the way over, and 4th year is breathing down my neck, if you will (or even if you won't). 4th year is somewhat like 3rd year, in that there are rotations in hospitals, but unlike 3rd year in that there are only 3 required rotations, and the rest of the year is made up of elective rotations that we choose to do. So, I've got to choose some electives in the next month or so. Therein lies my dilemma; usually 4th years do electives in the field that they are hoping to go into, and most will do "away" or "audition" rotations at a few residency programs that they are hoping to attend after graduation. Well, I plan to do just that, but I haven't quite figured out what I want to go into yet. So it's a little difficult to schedule things like that.

Of course the solution for this would be for me to go ahead and make a decision already!!!