Done. Libyan refugees are happy.

Done. Done done done! Done with pediatrics. And there goes my first clinical rotation.

The national shelf exam at the end of the rotation destroyed me and left nothing behind. I needed to go home, attend a massive birthday party for my niece, and then take a 7 hour nap just to recover from it.

Thankfully that test was the only bad part of the rotation. I loved playing with kids for 2 months. They come to you without any baggage. No drug dealers or depression- my patients were still...pure and ready to take on the world. Some were really sick, others were just fine and dandy for their well child check ups. Universally, it just feels so good to make a kid feel better.

Now I've still had my fair share of crazy stories. My very last patient for the rotation was a Libyan refugee. Her parents had gotten out a day or so after the protests had started, just in time before the government had started to knock off civilians. The parents were amazing and coping well for what was going on. Skype was their main line back home- but it was hard to work around the communications blackout.

They were also doing well with their daughter, who had a rare genetic condition that I had never encountered before. The moment I looked over her charts and saw what condition she had, I could think back to the very lecture that was supposed to cover it. Our professor was notoriously slow and his last words for that class: "Sorry for not getting to this condition. Please cover it on your own, but I'll be nice and not put it on the test." So of course I never studied it then. And of course I mastered that material at home later that day. But guess what. It never showed up on the exam. Not a single genetic condition showed up on the exam. Gosh I love medical school right now.

Onward to psychiatry! Two months total, with my first at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the next at the local county hospital. Should be interesting. I am ready for the war stories.