It was a busy week, Drew had a full week of cardio-thoracic surgery, and my parents came to visit. We had a lovely time with them, which was 24 hours filled with good restaurants and quite a bit of Christmas shopping!
Drew seemed to like cardio-thoracic so it is on the "short-list" of possible surgical careers. During his week he participated in/observed a carotid artery, a carotid artery cleaning, a couple lung resections, the removal of an esophagus and bypass surgery. He seemed to really like the procedures but his problem with this specialty is dealing with patients who have no intention of changing their lifestyles. For example the bypass surgery was for 7 clogged arteries - I am not even sure how to say that - a septuple bypass? And unfortunately the patient has no intention of quitting smoking even after undergoing such a major surgery. Oh, and the other interesting fact is that Drew said the surgeon was so good he completed all 7 bypasses in 3 and a half hours!
This week Drew starts colo-rectal surgery; one that Drew has already crossed off the list. He says he does not want to work on that end of the body and (his quote) "it is a crappy* rotation."*insert another adjective here
Luckily with Thanksgiving he will only have three days this week and two days next week. He has Thursday through Sunday off and we couldn't be more thrilled! In the past 9 weeks he has gotten only one weekend off. So to get four consecutive days off seems unheard of! It is hard to believe that next week is his last week of surgery - this fall has FLOWN by. But the exciting part is that in the next few months he will have a bit more time to do a little research which may help him narrow down his specialty choice.
The other morning I had a revelation that I am still having trouble wrapping my head around. I realized that we may never have weekends like a normal couple/family. I look forward to weekends to travel to see family and friends, or when we are lucky and they visit us. While he has only had Sundays off since August (with a few exceptions) this situation is only temporary, until December. Then he should have both Saturdays and Sundays off in the Month of December and we are hoping he might have a few weekends off during his spring rotations. Spring rotations are much less intense (6 weeks each) than his two fall rotations (surgery and internal medicine). Not to mention he had weekends off this past summer which allowed us to see family and friends. So I guess I am just struggling with the issue of not having the convenience of getting two consecutive days with my husband a week (or even a month). I guess I have known this, but I guess it just recently clicked. He tells me that during his residency he may occasionally be able to take a weekend off, but for the most part he will work every weekend. And the worst part - based on his short-list, his residency will be 6-8 years; and it may not improve after that. But those are surgeons' hours and it will be something I will have to learn to deal with (hopefully by spending lot of time with friends and family).
Well I have to get back to wrapping Christmas presents! With Gina and Damien heading to France for Christmas, and my parents heading to Florida, we are doing our Bianchi Christmas THIS weekend!
