Back in Crystal Lake again...

This weekend we are town for a college friend's wedding (the bride is from Crystal Lake, but I did not meet her until college). We gladly checked into hotel Bianchi last night where we are well-fed and the price is right!

This week wrapped up the end of Drew's surgery clerkship. Those ten weeks really flew by! On Thursday he had his clinical exam (where they saw fake patients and had to summarize a diagnosis and treament/management plans). Then on Friday he had his written test. We are hoping he did well because although you can still get into a surgical residency without surgical honors, it makes it a little more difficult. We should have the results of the test in about two weeks, but it will be about 4-6 weeks before we find out his clerkship grade (they factor in his doctor evaluations into his grade).

The last two weeks (half-weeks really with the holiday and then his exam) he was in colorectal. Surprisingly Drew actually found these surgeries interesting, but not interesting enough for him to want to put them on his "list." He simply says he can't see himself working on that end of the body his whole life.

Last week at Thanksgiving Drew got to talk to my cousin's wife Julie about her experience as a physician's assistant in neurosurgery at the University of Iowa. After his conversation Drew said he thinks that it is something he can manage. I don't doubt that he can manage anything - what I doubt is if I can handle the hours he is gone. What freaked me out was when Julie said that her residents usually work about 120 hours a week on average, but it was reassuring when she told us that Iowa is one of the more intense residency programs. In fact she said that they usually lose at least one resident a year. I think the key (for me) will be trying to find a surgical residency program that is closer to averaging 80-100 hours a week (if they do in fact exist). Which now that Drew is no longer in his surgery rotation he should have a lot more time to actually research the diffferent types of surgical residency programs.