Livin' on a Prayer

I decided to reorganize things around here yesterday, and spent most of naptime labeling various old posts in hopes that doing so would give me motivation to be a little more purposeful with my posting. I've definitely gotten worse about rambling (and not proofreading) over the last year or two.

In my reorganizing, I realized I've posted very very little about residency since it began. The waiting and wondering where we would be and the adjustment period were all exciting. It warranted lots of thinking/discussing/decision making. But, now, well, it just is, and I've come to accept that. Eric works a lot and Samuel and I kind of have our own little life going and that's how things are for us right now.

Intern year was bad in a lot of ways. While the hours could have been worse, Eric pretty much worked 13-14 hours a day, 6 days a week, with never more than one day off at a time for the last five months of it (February-June). His days off were spent catching up on sleep. He worked a month of night shifts which made him even more tired. I'm really glad that mess is over.

Now things are a little more relaxed. He still has bad months every other month. Like last month he had two days off total, and a few random nights thrown in with his long days (though now he gets to go in a little later, so he usually only works 12-13 hours instead). But now he's on a clinic month with 50ish hour work weeks and only one random night to work. So it alternates, and that's good for us. We can do anything for a month if we know an easier one is coming. Plus he's not at the bottom of the totem pole any more, and a lot of the busy work he doesn't enjoy goes to his interns.

The most exciting thing to me, however, is that, as of last week, Eric is halfway done with this program. I'm not going to lie and say it's flown by. It hasn't. Still, I love knowing that we've made it more than halfway. And that, really, the hardest part, that horrible horrible intern year, is over.

The last half of things always seem more manageable to me. Like when I'm running - the first few miles seem to take forever, but once I'm halfway done, I feel like the end is in sight and things just don't seem so bad. Hopefully residency will be the same way.

There's still some icky stuff coming. There's another month of night shifts starting in a couple of weeks. There's two ICU months with only one (short) consult block in between. And the last few months of his final year include more nights and ICU. And then there's probable interviews for fellowship and matching again and two more years of working long hours for little money in fellowship. So all that stuff is still out there.

Overall, though, the future is looking a little brighter. We have five weeks of vacation in 2015 (what?!?!) - two in March, two in September, and one in December. And two elective months, which are almost always super easy. I think we are all a little happier with life and starting to maybe thrive a little instead of just survive. And we know that one day in the not so crazy distant future, he will be done.

So we're halfway there. Sort of. Living on... okay, we're living on lots of prayer. :-)