Okay, I'm keeping this one short. Don't got time to write a whole lot, and I don't really have a whole lot to say other than the fact that I'm sadly finishing my Pediatrics rotation this week. And oh yeah, I have a notoriously tough shelf exam on Friday that I'm still actively working to prepare for. 😅

I just got back from a fun couple of days in Chapel Hill, where me, my girlfriend and a couple of close friends attended the UNC-Miami football game and watched Miami take down UNC in a game that shouldn't have been close at all. But it's whatever, we 7-0 baby!!! Okay I lied, it's not whatever; we play VA Tech at our homecoming next weekend and they are not going to be an easy team to play. Plus our schedule gets even tougher after that game…so we'll see how long our undefeated status will last. I got faith though!

Before going to Chapel Hill for the weekend, I had spent my week in the Newborn Nursery where I not only got to play with babies every day, but also learned how to perform routine physicial exams on newborns. Throughout the week, I also interacted with and gave discharge talks to the families of the newborns, witnessed firsthand the complex social situations that these babies were born into, listened to informative presentations on child abuse & child advocacy, and gained a ton of knowledge from the residents and attendings I worked with about the various medical conditions that can affect newborns. I even changed a couple of diapers, something that I hadn't done in a number of years! (That exclamation mark doesn't mean that I wasn't excited about changing diapers…if anything, I was moreso surprised that I was actually doing it once more after all this time lol.) It was a really great experience in a chill environment and unlike in the inpatient setting, the vast majority of these babies were born healthy, meaning that there was more happiness than sadness going around in the nursery. I really enjoyed going to “work” each day, even on my Saturday morning shift. My team played a huge part in my happiness in the nursery; they were such fantastic people to work with! Also, you wouldn't believe how much manpower it takes to transition a family from birth to discharge from the hospital. There's SO much work that's involved in making sure that a newborn is adequately taken care of in its first couple days of life, which is followed by multiple appointments at a Pediatrician's office after the family is discharged. It's funny to think that, once upon a time, we were all newborns who went through this whole baby shuffle.

The fact that I'm entering my last week of Pediatrics is so wild to me. It just all flew by so fast! And I'm sure that by now, you're fully aware of how much I've been enjoying my experience in this rotation. I'm finishing up my Peds experience on the Endocrinology service, where I'll be interacting with patients afflicted with various endocrine disorders in a couple of different clinics. I'm excited to relish in this opportunity and judging by the email I received from the doctor that I'll be working with, I can already tell that it's going to be yet another awesome week! Then I gotta take this shelf exam that literally everyone has said was tough as hell. But it's all good, because I know I'll be prepared for it by the time I take it! And then I'm going to have a dope weekend that I'm so looking forward to after I finish the test! 😄😄😄

 I hope you have an incredible week!

“At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” – Albert Schweitzer

– Black Man, M.D.