This is an email I sent to a friend of mine. I can't take the time to write another entry, sorry guys. Questions, ask. I'll answer. It's been a crazy 1st week. I have so many assignments to do this weekend though. Eek!

You're getting a novel missy!!!! It's been a wild ride. On Monday I don't think I really knew what to expect from Surgery except that I would be on my feet a lot and working long hours... My days are long, every day this week I've been in at 5am and leave around 6. (Sometimes earlier but I don't expect it).

I really like Arrowhead. It's been good so far and my first day was probably the most chill day. We got orientation at around 7:30 and then we met with our team. I met a great girl who's a PA from USC. She's been such a help because she's already done about 5 rotations. She's been so much fun and on our first day we saw patients together and did our H & P. We haven't had to dictate anything, just writing progress notes and H & Ps.

Stories, just seeing a lot of diabetic feet ulcers, abscesses, lap choles, lap appys, AV fistulas, etc... Wowser.

I've decided I don't want to be a surgeons. All we get to do is small bowel obstructions, we get excited when someone farts or poops, incision and drains of abscesses (even one on the butt!!! ick), and all the laparoscopic procedures are redundant.

I too have found a church. It was crazy but I did a search on the internet and found some sites, but the last one that I found was a site for FlipSide. The site looked hip and I thought I would check it out. So I went on Sunday morning and felt like it was the place for me, it's very young and they play a lot of modern music. I then met the lady next to me and she introduced me to the Children's ministry director, so I signed up to start helping with the Children's ministry. I think it'll be a nice church home for me. The crazy God part of this is not only is it the last website that I looked at by chance, it's also <0.5 mile from my place, and a lady from my old church moved down here and asked her friend what church I should go to, and lo and behold I was told to go check out FlipSide. Cool... Signs usually come in 3s and that was the 3rd. Amazing.

I currently am living by myself for the 1st time and it's kind of nice. All my stuff is everywhere. Gemma doesn't return until August and I think it'll be a good time for me to get settled before she returns. I wake up at 4am and I'm not sure how thrilled that will make her.

Last story for this email, I was on call Wednesday night which means that I come in Wednesday morning at 5am to round on my 4 patients and then leave Thursday morning when rounds finish. So, Wednesday was pretty busy, I rounded on my patients, did rounds with the Resident, and then again rounds with the attending. The PA and I went to watch a few surgeries and right before we both going to leave (so I could eat and then come back for night call) we saw a trauma case. It was a gunshot wound to the neck. In the end we didn't stay that long because I had to check in with my intern and resident to start night call at 6p. I found them and it was non-stop consults, trauma cases, a lap appy, and a amputation. I was getting pimped on appendicitis at 3:30a. I don't know how surgeons do it, but they are a special breed. I think it's cool to do surgery but I feel it would be so monotonous. They really do interact quite a bit with their patients which was surprising to me. I didn't expect that. So then I guess I was lucky because I got to leave at about 9am. It was only being awake for about 29 hours... not bad huh?

Well, that's all for now, I think both of our experiences seem to be going well in completely opposite ways. I think that nothing can get harder than surgery, so I'm excited for the rotations after this and orthopedics. God's amazing because He is taking care of me while I feel somewhat alone here.

Love. C