Congratulations to Keith

Three weeks ago Keith took the USMLE Step 2 CK and I am happy to tell everyone that he got his results back this morning and he did great!  I am so proud of him!  He is also relieved to have that test behind him.  He will take the USMLE Step 2 CS in October.

This week Keith started a rotation in Urgent Care.  He is glad to be done with GI as watching colonoscopies all day long got a little redundant.

Chattahoochee River

The other day, Keith, Alex, and I went to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area- Island Ford to hike around.  I took a few pictures and posted them on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bratulich/sets/72157626538035575/

Island Ford is just one section within the national recreation area.  We plan to be here for at least another year so we hope to visit more of the recreation area before we leave.

Keith scheduled a few more rotations and is now scheduled until February of next year.  He has a few more to schedule and is thinking about which rotations he wants to do.  This is what his schedule will look like for the next few months.

He is finishing up the next two weeks in pediatrics.
5/23-7/1 Psychiatry
7/18-8/12- Gastroenterology
8/15-9/9- Urgent Care
9/12-10/7 Cardiology
10/10-11/4-Internal Medicine Sub-internship
11/7-1/27 Surgery
1/30-2/24 Emergency Medicine

He has two weeks off in July but will be studying for his USMLE Step 2 CK exam.  After he finishes with that he will have to study for the USMLE Step 2 CS exam.  The studying never ends!

Blooming Flowers

We have been loving the weather here in Atlanta (except for this week, it's been rainy).  Alex and I meet up with her preschool friends at the playground most everyday.  Tomorrow since it is supposed to rain again we are going to meet at an indoor playground called Jeronimo.  Alex loves getting together with her friends and having them come over to play.

Keith is enjoying his Family Practice rotation.  He says the majority of the patients have been coming in with allergies.  Allergies are really bad here, so bad that there is a layer of yellow dust (pollen) on everything.  I will have to take a picture of it and post it because I have never seen anything like it.  After two weeks of Family Practice, Keith will start his Pediatrics rotation.   We still do not know what his rotations will be after Pediatrics.  I hope we will find out this week!  Dealing with Ross University clinical department can be so frustrating!

Keith Starts Back on Monday

So Keith finally found out today that he is going back to his IM rotation on Monday!  So he did his two weeks of Nephrology and now he will be doing outpatient stuff..  I hope we don't have anymore issues with Ross.

Alex's First Day of Preschool

I had mentioned in an earlier post that we received a call from a church preschool where we had Alex's name on a waiting list. They had an opening so Keith and I went in to take a look at the place and signed Alex up. Luckily I had already received her immunization records from Mankato and Miami so all I had to do was go to the department of health so they could fill out a form and she was set to go.

Alex had her first day today! She was so excited to go to school with her new Littlest Pet Shop lunch pack. She had no problem leaving me and didn't cry a bit. I think I was the one with separation anxiety. When I picked her up her teacher told me that she did great and a few of the girls gave her a hug good-bye. We ended up stopping by the park on the way home and ran into her little school friends again. Alex had so much fun at the park that she didn't want to leave!

Keith has now started his second week of Nephrology. The other day he got to see someone with calciphylaxis. Apparantly this is something you get from kidney dialysis. He thought that was pretty interesting and a great learning experience. After this week he will be heading to Dekalb Hospital to continue his Internal Medicine rotation which he is very happy about because he won't be spending so much time in the car.

I think I need a Car

Pictured above is Alex in bunny ears, Castlin, Kara, and Kaya.  We we're invited over to a family game night at Castlin's parents house, Jennifer and her husband, Shannon.  I had met Jennifer once while in Miami and now they are in Atlanta doing rotations.  Alex had a fun time playing with friends while mommy and daddy played Catch Phrase with the other couples. 

Keith had his second day today.  He is enjoying it so far!  Although I will say I am in desperate need of a car!  I just need to get out of the house.  As soon as Keith got home I went to the library to return some videos and then went to the grocery store.  Tomorrow is story time at the library at 3pm and I'd really like to take Alex. We went last week and Alex really liked it.  She is so shy but she really wants to participate and she always raises her hand when a question is asked.  Hopefully I can get her into a preschool soon.  I called the elementary school across the street because they have a pre-k program but there are 50 kids on the waiting list there.  Now I have her on a waiting list at a nearby church.  So I hope she can get in there sometime soon since Alex is the next one on the list.

Keith is doing his rotation with one other Ross student who has also just started her rotations.  It's nice because it's just the two of them with the doctor.  So he will get more hands on experience and will get to learn more.  Some rotations are with about 8 other students with just one doctor.  Keith says the doctor is really nice and eager to teach them.  Keith came home today telling me that red meat and salt are bad for the kidneys... I guess he wants us to cut down on red meat and salt now! :)

Keith's First Day of Internal Medicine

Keith just got home a while ago from his first day at rotations at Southern Regional Medical Center.  He started the morning in orientation and then spent the afternoon at a nearby clinic.  He is starting his first few weeks in Nephrology.  I was really curious to learn about how his day went.  I thought I would try and post tidbits of information on what type of stuff he sees and learns about during his clinicals.  He said today he saw a lot of people in the end stages of kidney failure.  Many of them also had drug induced nephropathy.  I asked Keith to explain what this is and of course he tried to explain it to me in medical jargon and I just did not understand so I looked it up myself.  When he said "drug induced", I assumed illegal drugs like cocaine, but he was talking about NSAID induced nephropathy.  Anyways, I'm sure I will have more interesting tidbits of info to come.

The picture above is Alex at the Brook's Run park near our home in Dunwoody, GA.  We used some dead grasses and twigs on the ground to make a nest and then found little white rocks to put in the nest.  She had so much fun!  Alex isn't in daycare or preschool yet and I hope to get her in something soon.  Of course it is kind of hard when we only have one car.  I also have her on a waiting list for a preschool near our home.

Keith's Starts His First Day of Rotations Tomorrow

Keith starts his first day of rotations tomorrow.  Well, actually it's orientation day so not sure if he will actually start or not.  We drove by the hospital a few days ago and it looks really nice.  This is it above, Southern Regional Medical Center!  He will start out by doing 12 weeks of IM.  I'll post more updates to let you all know how his rotations are going.