The Return of the Ghostwriter: Dr. Dennis’ Rotation Elation

After throwing back a few glasses of Pinot Grigio last night, Sar and I came to the revelation (funny how that happens!) that her blog hasn’t been updated since the summer. Since “Wicked” is tagged as one of her relatives’ favorite sites, I feel like it’s our obligation to give them what they want! So in the usual manner of having ridiculous lagtime in between posts, I’m back to fill you in on what Sarah’s been up to for the past 5 months.

Uhh, to tell you the truth, I don’t really know.

Sarah started third year rotations on 6/25 and has been going at it ever since, so my shenanigans with her have dramatically decreased—it’s sad. But since the time we now spend together is kind of a big deal, I’ll try to use these moments to gauge what deserves blogtime, and Sarah can fill in all the missing details that I have no clue about.

At the end of June, Sarah returned to the real world (after all that Bahamas and birthday fun) and began her internal medicine rotation at Columbia Presbyterian, where she was assigned to the Oncology specialization. For five weeks, Sarah treated cancer patients and learned everything there is to know about tumors. Going into third year, Sarah was considering neonatology or pediatrics, but after this rotation, she is VERY interested in oncology and placing it at the top of her list of possible specialities…very nahhhhce.

For the fourth of July, Sarah had to work... man medicine sucks. But she did get to see pretty, pretty lights from the balcony after Jon and Heidi made her delicious burgers and mojitos. For labor day weekend, she got to have some nice family bonding time with Matt, Tara, and her family down at the Jersey shore. Running on the boards and swimming in the ocean will clear anybody's mind. You notice that these two holidays are separated by lots of time and, yet, nothing else happened besides work.

Rotation number two brought Sarah to midtown’s Roosevelt Hospital, where she branched out into general medicine practice (correct me if I’m wrong, Sar). This was the ideal location for her “away” medicine rotation, as it was located walking distance from Columbus Circle (and my office and apartment). In spite of the early morning subway commutes, Sar managed to have half-decent hours at Roosevelt while frequently taking mid-afternoon coffee breaks at Starbucks with yours truly.

Following Roosevelt, Sarah began her Subspecialty rotation in Orthopedics and Urology. During this rotation, Sarah tightened her bond with fellow classmate Maya, as they discovered that the orthopedic-surgeons-really-are-ex-frat-boys stereotype is dead on. During surgeries, it was not unusual for the doctors to be blasting Akon’s “Smack That” over the OR loudspeakers and discussing inappropriate topics. Maya and Sar would take frequent afternoon walks to Shake Shack so they were obviously working very hard. Although ortho was a party, Sarah loved urology even more. Her aPEEciation for urology stemmed, I’m sure, partially from the urologists themselves, who I hear are some of the most fulfilled, good-humored doctors there are. But that doesn’t surprise me, because seriously, how can you not love the hundreds of jokes that go hand in hand with this job??

During this rotation, Sarah was lucky enough to be done around 5pm everyday, and she also had weekends off. Since she was no longer MIA 24/7, we were able to return to Keeley’s, our usual stomping ground, for some fun evenings. We even decided to be diehards and go to K’s for the ND/Michigan State game on a Saturday afternoon. Even though the Fighting Irish continued their stellar losing streak that day, that didn’t stop us from having a good time. Since we were the only girls there, we got center-bar seats, and the bartender changed the big flat screen to our game.

Aaaand then that brings us to surgery—Sarah’s current rotation. I looked up the definition of surgery online, and what Dictionary.com has failed to note, I have added below in bold :

sur·ger·y /–noun, plural -ger·ies

1. the art, practice, or work of treating diseases, injuries, or deformities by manual or operative procedures *while incurring 100 hour work weeks and sleep deprivation, subsisting on coffee and cheese, and putting up with jerkhead security “sergeants” that think they rule the hospital

To make a long story short, Sarah is kicking butt in surgery but is also working redunkulous hours and putting up with security guards who have anger management issues. Yes, one of them yelled at her for calling him a “security guard” instead of a “security sergeant!” I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of a security sergeant in my life—I guess the late night hours got to him too.

Since Halloween fell during surgery for Sar, and I’m an old fart, no longer willing to go down to the Village Parade craziness, we spent Halloween tamely this year with Sarah’s dad, Matt, and Tara. We had drinks at the Waldorf then went to Chin Chin, an AMAZING Chinese restaurant, where we ate everything from dumplings to orange beef to 10 ingredient fried rice to, I think 3..or 4(? yes that would be four, Katie) bottles of wine. Our palates were in heaven, and a good time was had by all. We even got Halloween treats, because the lounge next door had a table outside full of Sweet Tarts and Laffy Taffy, free for grabs. All in all, a great Halloween night

In a week, Sarah is going to be leaving for New Mexico for 6 weeks for another primary care rotation at Ship Rock. While caring for the natives on the reservation, Sarah plans to go camping in the Grand Canyon with Jamie G. and do lots of sight seeing. I am jealous. So for all of Sar’s relatives out there, don’t be surprised if this year’s X-mas presents have some Indian flava to them;)

So I think that’s about it, guys. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a posting pre-Matt&Tara’s wedding

Until next time….KT.