End of my first rotation

Alas, I am just about to finish my rotation in pediatrics. I learned the true meaning of "Terrible 2s" and realized that taking a history from a 14 year-old can be like pulling teeth, or more like speaking to someone in a different language. The nursery was one of the coolest places I've been. Everyone is happy. A lot of pediatrics outside of the hospital is stuff that parents simply aren't familiar with, preventative medicine and making sure that children are developing properly.

The wards was one of the strangest experiences in medicine I have ever had. We were all expecting what is referred to as "bread and butter pediatrics" but the wards did not deliver. I think all of us know how to deal with "rule-out sepsis" in the newborn now, but that might be the only common thing we saw. For example, my first patient had trisomy 21, AKA Down's syndrome, who also had a leukemoid reaction, axial hypotonia, chronic lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and possible Hirschprung's. Quite the mouthful for my first patient. Even my staff told me that the pediatric wards have been filled with strange, bizzare cases these last few years.

As interesting as my experience has been, and as much fun as I've had with the children, I feel like I could do SOME pediatrics. The way things are going, I'm thinking more and more that I want to do family medicine. I get excited when I talk about family medicine, it's why I applied to medical school, it's what I think I would be happy doing. I found out that some schools in Canada have a third year for family medicine residents to do some extra training in pediatrics so they can better tailor their practice to children. It's not necessary to be able to treat children, but if ever I feel like I want to have better training in pediatrics, I could go do that extra year in one of those schools.

So as I prepare for my exam, and think about the gory gruesome joy of catching babies for a month in obstetrics, I have started to think about my career path as a family physician, where I will go for residency and what kind of practice I am going to have.

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