I'm here! Officially and completely living in Kansas City. The next chapter has begun and things are off to an incredible and hectic start. I think that would be the title of my autobiography if I ever wrote one. Incredible and Hectic: Story of my life.
Let's play a little catch up shall we??? I promise to tell all my tales from Europe, but in a separate post. I started to scribble them down here and realized I have too much to cover in one place.
I arrived back state side almost a month ago completely jetlagged and eager to move in to my new apartment. I had just a couple days wait before the whole move in process got started and when Monday rolled around grandma and I were off towards my KC adventure.
Overall the move went smoothly and painlessly. The truth is I had so little to move that the movers spent a good portion of their time taking videos off the balcony. During my adult life, I've never bought furniture and have had various hand-me-downs from different family members. I knew that I wasn't going to be putting any of the furniture into the new apartment and I left all those things behind. I hired a wonderful interior designer and set out on my first experience furnishing an home.
It has been a very fun and expensive project, but if you walked into this apartment you would have no idea.
From the moment you unlock and just crack the door open it is just breathtaking and unbelievable....or uhh it appears as if some warehouse took over an apartment. Cardboard boxes everywhere! So basically I currently live in a very fancy box graveyard with an incredible view. The first week, I had plastic silverware and paper plates, I was pretty sure I had knives in one of those boxes, mattresses on the floor, forgot I didn't pack sheets, and a couple of towels in the bathroom. I wish I could tell you that I have taken leaps and bounds in the settling in department since then, but the truth is that I'm taking baby steps every day.
The first piece of furniture to arrive was the bookshelf for the guest room and let me tell you it looks fabulous! And this little badass over here put it together all my by self! The first hiccup is when they delivered the rug to our package room and I realized I can't carry a 9 ft tall object by
myself. (Thanks Dad!) I now also have a desk. No chair for the desk yet, but we are moving on up.
So in review, still sleeping on mattresses on the floor, eating on lawn chairs in the living room, put together a bookshelf and a desk, and anxiously awaiting the rest of my furniture. I took a big step yesterday and finally picked out some counter stools!
My biggest priority upon moving in actually wasn't furniture at all. It was making friends. I had this incredible group of friends in Little Rock that I already miss dearly and here I was in a new place where I didn't know anyone. I have always been of the belief that I am terrible at making friends and I feel like we can all relate that making friends gets way harder as you get older. Somehow making friends was easy though. By the end of the first week I had met a few girls who I knew I was going to love. And after starting work last week it turns out there is another girl starting with me who is going to be my neighbor and very likely my work wife. I don't know what I did in the last life to get this kind of karma, but I'm loving it! I may also be dabbling in some dating..
So for the big question....
What is it like your first week as an Attending???
First I'll give just a little perspective for those who don't know the full structure of the journey to get to be an Attending. As a resident, you take care of your own patients, but you always have a supervising doctor, an attending. As you get further along in residency, they do less and less with your patients and eventually they become you sounding board on complicated patients and your safety net.
So last week, I walked into the hospital as an attending for the first time. I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't nervous at all. I knew I would be doing the same thing I've been doing for the last 3 years and that I had received incredible training, but I was without my safety net. Without my person to tell me when I was screwing up.
The entire experience is a bit surreal. I go in to do procedures I rarely if ever did without supervision and I look around for the attending. Then I mentally remind myself that I am the attending. Then I look around at my partners and think "are you sure none of you want to come watch me?" Don't get me wrong, I march right into those rooms and take care of the patient. I know what I'm doing, I have all the training, but it is a cultural change. I went from always being supervised to being the supervisor. I have people asking me what to do instead of the other way around.
I've been reassured by one of my favorite attendings in Little Rock that this is normal and will pass...in a month or two.
Everyone survived my first week of my big kid job, including me and my nurses.
Once I get settled into this crazy new life, I'll start really getting into my goals for my new free time. Though I'm started to wonder if "free time" is just an illusion, because I'm still living this incredible, hectic life and free time is hard to come by. The herb garden has been planted. I tried my hand at homemade marinara with my sister, and I am actively trying to cook more now that I have a fully functional kitchen. And I'm here working on blogging. Free time may be hard to come by, but I'm still working on that short list of things I want to do now that I'm not a resident.
I'll get my Europe post out this weekend and from here on out my goal is to post each Sunday!
