It's now the penultimate month before the end of my term as a medical resident. As things begin to wind down, the last-minute "pahabol" work seems to wind up even more as we scramble to finish the necessary requirements for promotion and graduation.
An all-too-familiar feeling pervades the atmosphere at the office, with the residents wheeling and dealing with their in-out schedules and planning for the Christmas party where we have the "initiation" performance of the incoming first year MRODs, as well as the sendoff for the outgoing seniors.
It feels a little different this time around because, after 3 long and tiring years, it is now OUR turn to be sent off back into the world, to either pursue further training in our chosen subspecialty, or to carve out a name for ourselves as we begin our private practice as a general internist. Of course, this must be taken with a grain of salt, as the beginning of success depends on our performance in the forsthcoming PSBIM examinations, which fortunately for us, has ben moved a couple of months from January to March. This would hopefully provide us seniors with ample (?) time to hit the books and study our brains out in a last desperate attempt to prove that we actually learned something from 3 years of "service" interspersed with training.
Three years... Has it been that long already?.. I know this is already a cliche, but it seems only yesterday when I got word from TMC Neuro that I was not accepted as a part of their staff.. It was a major gamble that I had lost big time, when I opted to turn my back on a reputable school-based Neurology program due to personal reasons and tried my luck closer to home at TMC.. My luck finally ran out, and I was drifting aimlessly about, wallowing in self-pity.. I really thought that was it, that I had no more future since I had already squandered a pair of perfectly good chances in well-established programs that had already accepted me as one of their own..
Fast forward a couple of week, and here I was at the doors of the hospital, making a last-ditch attempt to salvage what had seemed like a promising medical career when I had first graduated. They say that beggars can't be choosers, so I grudgingly took what was given to me, knowing that I had blown what could have been a lifelong dream come true.. Little did I know that third time was the charm, and that I would finally find a home as part of an Internal Medicine program of a little known local government hospital. :)
I shall forgo the telling of my evolution as a resident here since that is a long-winded story for another time.
