There have been a round of dinners and graduations and award ceremonies that have felt a little strange here. This is the first year that we have really paid attention to them. I think it is because nearly everyone that has been graduating from various residency programs this year all came in as interns when David did. But they are done. David has two more years. It kind of hit us both a little hard - we could be done - but we aren't. A three year residency is pretty standard for many areas of medicine, but not surgery.
Last night we went to the Children's Hospital graduation dinner. David spent several months at that Hospital as a third year and he worked very hard. He always works really hard, the difference this time was that people noticed! He was invited to the graduation dinner because they awarded him the Outstanding Surgical Resident Of the Year award. I was just happy to see him being recognized for what I already knew :)
In July David officially starts his fourth year and I like to think that in not too long we will be done too. It isn't that I want the time to pass and be gone, I am just hopeful that in a couple of years he will actually get to come home for dinner and see the kids for more than an hour or two each week. I read blogs where people complain about their spouse working a 60 hour week, or they celebrate the weekend and Thank God for Fridays or Sundays or holidays and I struggle with where God has put us as I look at 120 hour work weeks and years of holidays and weekends that are absolutely no different than any other day. We won't see David, just like yesterday and the day before that and the day before that.
This morning he was up at 4:00 and probably will not be home until 8:00 tonight. This weekend is different, he doesn't have to go to work on Saturday, but he has been averaging 4 hours of sleep every night so he will need to spend much of the day sleeping since he goes in for a 30+ hour shift on Sunday. One of the things people told us during medical school was that actually working was better than studying for school because when you are done at work you are really done, you don't have to be studying. That has not proven to be true. The pressure is never gone, you can never study enough, and you can't ever catch up. Any relaxation is stolen from something that you feel you ought to be doing.
I am not sure of how David handles the pressure. I was counting up the times I have taken our kids to the ER since we moved here three years ago. There have been seven times (One broken open head, one finger stuck in a long metal band, one new baby with RSV, one anyphlactic reaction, twice for croup, one bottle of benadryl drunk)and David has not been available for any of them. He was able to get off of work for an hour to meet me down there when Pati went in with RSV as a new baby. He was on call at three different hospitals those two nights Pati was in the hospital and he wore himself out walking and driving all over town to answer calls and then to lay down on the floor by Pati's bed for a few minutes before the next call would come. Instead of going home to bed he shows up at the kids soccer games after being at the hospital for 30 hours. All that to say that not only are there unreasonable demands from work and study but we make unreasonable demands on him from home too.
I think he deserves much more than the little plaque he received last night, but I was pleased and proud to see him receive it.
