The Beach...

I am in Ventura, CA! I am renting a room from a very nice older lady. She has a cute country like house. Walking into the house today, I passed by the trickling water in the garden, through the kitchen that's filled with the smell of freshly baked lemon bars and apple casserole in the oven, then by the living room with soft jazz of the Titanic theme song playing, into a very clean room with 2 beds. After I met the 2 baby orange tabbies (Lewis and Clark), introduced myself to the African-gray parrot named Mona, I decided to take a bike ride down to the Ventura Pier. It was a lovely ride.

Leaving the Burn Unit in Phoenix, I felt a little sad. It is the combination of 1) leaving all the patients that I've come to feel so much for, 2) leaving the OR, 3) I won't have another surgery rotation for the rest of the year, 4) and, out of all the surgeries I've done, I like burn surgery the most. I wanted so bad to see the patients recover and heal. Perhaps one day God would use me to help people in that situation again.

Turning over a page... I am excited to start a rotation here with the Ventura County Medical Center's Family Practice residency program. I am doing ICU and Peds this month. Along with In His Image, I am ranking these 2 places at the top of my list. Oh, did I tell you? I have finally decided to choose Family Medicine as the specialty I want to go into. Though I had wanted to be a surgeon for awhile, I feel there are many advantages of becoming a Family Doctor:

1. Get training to take care of obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, medicine, minor surgeries, emergency care.
2. Additional fellowships trainings in wilderness medicine, tropical medicine, sports medicine, and osteopathic manipulative medicine.
3. Family doctors are very well suited to work in the mission field.
4. Family doctors see everything first, then decide who gets what types of specialty care... so a good family doctor could potentially 'try' to do as much as possible before referring. So, a family doctor could potentially be all that a patient would see in their life time.
5. I am very well suited for those things mentioned above, because I am very interested in a broad training program.
6. Family doctors has more time to spend with family and hobbies... more vacations!
7. Family doctors can offer spiritual care in a much thorough way compare to any other specialty.

So, I have many reasons of why I want to be a Family Doctor... I know there are many that have encouraged me to do something else, but after much evaluation, I still think that Family Medicine would be the best fit for me. Thank you for all your prayers... this process has been very difficult, so, thank you for your supports and prayers.