Sorry that it's been a while since I've posted ... I finished with family medicine in Storm Lake last Thursday and made it home to Iowa City safely in the snow and ice. Two exams and four standardized patients later, I am finally "free" for four weeks on winter break! I've got several projects I'd like to tackle over the next weeks, but I'm treating myself to a few movies and a few mornings with no alarm clocks.
Storm Lake was terrific and only emphasized my love for/interest in/plan to pursue family medicine in residency. Not only did I deliver a baby, but I dipped my hands in paraffin wax with the physical therapists, read echocardiograms with the cardiologists, administered allergy shots with the allergist, and was hit in the face with a flying diabetic toenail by the podiatrist (Talk about some impressive clippers!). As I reflect back on the four weeks I spent there, I realize that I had the quintessential small-town Iowa experience where everyone knows everyone (perhaps too well ...), folks are quick to lend a hand, alliances run deep, change and understanding comes slowly with time, and traffic means one car waiting in front of you at the stoplight. I could easily tell that the doctors were revered by their patients, and it somewhat startled me the first time I ran in to three patients of 'my own' in Wal-Mart. It was an introspective month --- a time to realize that life really IS good in rural Iowa and that perhaps it could be a fit for me a few years down the road if/when a family of my own enters the picture. And as my preceptor told me on several occasions in as many different ways, one has to decide for him/herself what is really wanted -- and important -- in life, be okay with it, and find a way to make it happen. A place like Storm Lake isn't the fit for me at present, but time will tell ... and I look forward to seeing what reveals itself in the years to come.
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