2018: a year in review

Looking back on 2017's year in review, I realized that 2017 was quite possibly the best year ever. Quite frankly, 2018, well it's been the worst.

I started the first half of the year wrapping up things for medical school with classes the first few months, our Match Day ceremony , and then graduation. The highlight of my year was finally becoming a doctor and being able to celebrate with my friends and family. Also, I made plenty of time for baking, and found a new love for decorating sugar cookies!

In May we were able to visit the Cayman Islands and that was one of my favorite vacations yet, spending time on the beach and in the blue water just makes me so happy! I love looking back on these memories and this trip meant so much to both Jake and I, especially looking back at how the rest of the year went.

July first was my official "day 1" as a doctor and I started off in the ICU. I was terrified, exhausted, and constantly studying trying to do my best (I guess I'm still doing this 6 months in). I learned so much taking care of some of Nebraska's sickest. By the end of the month we had found out my dad had end stage esophageal cancer.

In early August Jake and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and witnessed one of our best friends tie the knot in Beatrice.

Also in August I worked in the emergency room and experienced the chaos and randomness of emergency room visits. I was able to practice my procedures such as stitching, putting breathing tubes in, putting lines in, removing foreign bodies from eyeballs, and so much more.

September was my Trauma Surgery month and we also took care of the ICU patients from the Transplant Surgery team. I was introduced to the first of many to come 28 hour (...but sometimes 30) shifts and the trauma patients, experiences, and injuries will stick with me for a long time.

October I worked on the Nephrology service and we also were able to take a trip to New York. We had so much fun, ate the best pizza, explored the touristy places, and shopped. Our favorite part of this trip was seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway with the original London cast <3 ! (Mean Girls and Book of Mormon were also amazing).

November was my month on the Cardiology service and I had call shifts for 28 hours every week, a few weeks twice a week. I learned a lot about chest pain, arrhythmias, and heart attacks, but balancing the other stress in my life was getting harder. I was in the room talking to a young patient who's heart stopped during an elective surgery and needed resuscitated when I got the call from Mom that Dad had died.

December I worked with a vascular surgeon taking care of people who may need toe or foot amputations, people who need fistulas made or dialysis lines put in with kidney failure, taking care of clogged arteries from atherosclerosis, and helping people with proper wound healing who have poor circulation and diabetes.

Throughout the entire year I have had overwhelming support, especially from my colleagues at work including my coresidents, but also residents who didn't know me well. Attending physicians have given me hugs in the elevator and even random staff at UNMC I didn't know have given me hugs. Everyone always asks "what can I do?" but the best thing that's been done for me is the residents who barely knew me and who adjusted their schedules to help me have more time to go back home. My anesthesia coresidents have been such a blessing and I honestly don't know how I would have done this without them as well. They have been there every step of the way (and still are) and always listen to me vent, cry, complain, talk about God, and give me the daily support I need.

December was especially hard as the last six months have piled up. Jake and I have spent every free day (or free half day) since dad's diagnosis driving to see him or mom at home and many days we went after work to visit him in the Lincoln hospital and stay late, returning to work the next morning very early. We have loved having so much time with family the last six months but honestly December was full of mental breakdowns for me as I realized I hadn't taken a full day at home relaxing and taking care of myself without doing anything work/travel/visiting home/out for an event related in five months. We had neglected friends too so we decided to plan a lot of events in December. I struggled balancing work, studying, exercise, having time with friends, visiting home, attending holiday events, and taking care of my home/myself/Jake. So many periods of not having any food in our fridge (and I mean none) , no clean clothes, and no clean dishes because yes, we were that busy. In January I take my next boards exams and have made a goal every week to have 24 hours to myself and will need to make more time to study too.

My blog this year has had a lot more progress and success than prior years. Thank you again for all of your support. I've worked to schedule posts in advance (as well as keep up with Instagram) and the feedback I've received from so many people has been wonderful. For all of the negative things said about social media, when your real job is 80 hours (sometimes more) a week it's nice to feel connected to the outside world and social media has allowed me to do that. In 2019 I'll continue to schedule posts, share my hobbies, favorite recipes, adventures, favorite new fashion or beauty pieces, life in residency, and hopefully work on adding more to my daily stories on social media. I've loved connecting with so many people this year and interacting daily with new friends, old friends, and family.

Love you all, thank you, thank you, thank you

It's going to be a great new year!

XOXO

Allie