January is never a wonderful month but I can't ever remember it being quite so draining... since I last wrote I completed my renal block (transplant turned out to be super interesting!), passed my first postgrad exam (phew!), went to Taiwan/HK/Japan (and already have plans to go back!), enjoyed a family home Christmas but now find myself at the end of a week off with that familiar feeling of "please don't make me go back to work"!
I won't bore you with the whys except to say that service provision has been deemed unsurprisingly, more important that our training.. which currently makes my day job extremely frustrating. I still love the medicine - the interesting cases and the complex scenarios we face and learn from everyday, but it is certainly the first post in which I have felt that love dented somewhat. I'm sure it's a feeling that has been felt by many and will sadly loom again, but one can keep wishing...
Off the wards, many of my colleagues are now preparing for interviews for their further training. I on the other hand, like 48% of my year, opted not to apply this year. If one thing never changes, it's how indecisive I am! In the end I couldn't decide on neither specialty nor location so opted for the 2nd gap yah and can't wait. One thing I hadn't pre-empted however was the amount of uncertainty that followed once I had thought I had already dodged plenty of it!
Currently I hope to move home for some time to work temporarily there to get a feel for what it is like (plus finish a Masters) before ideally travelling to Patagonia (a place on my bucket list since I was in fact a stone's throw from it in 2008 but not well equipped enough to venture in) and then moving on to work/play in Australia/New Zealand... if they'll have me!
If all goes to plan, who knows where I'll be in January next year...? ;)
