The Lone Coyote Returns

It has been almost seven months to the day since I wrapped up my blog, Medical Student Musings, which explored my experience in medical school. When we last left our heroine, The Lone Coyote, she was adapting to her first rotation in a busy lab and wondering when the heck she was going to have time to study for boards. Since then a lot has changed for the better:

1. I know my way around the hospital and can log into the computer regularly
2. I passed Step 3, so can become an officially licensed physician someday
3. I am more than halfway through this year and eventually will not be the lowest person on the totem pole anymore
4. I am pretty used to getting called and paged and don't feel that sinking feeling in my stomach that plagued me on my earliest call nights
5. Most importantly, I don't look over my shoulder or freeze up on the phone when someone calls me "doctor"

Clearly, I needed some time to adjust to my new life as a resident. But in the interim I really missed writing. Of course, I wrote on a daily basis at work, but it is usually in the form of little bullet points--names, lab values, tests, things to do. I even tried writing about things outside of medicine. Then I realized that I am a resident, so there really is not that much to talk about other than medicine. Even in a "lifestyle-friendly" field, the reality is that work makes up the biggest portion of your day.

So it is time for The Lone Coyote to return to blogging about medicine. If you enjoyed the old blog, I will warn you that this one is going to be a bit different. It is not going to chronicle my day-to-day life in residency. Instead, it is going to be more general in its exploration of issues relating to medical education and health care. We'll see how it evolves, but I can only hope that it will be as fun to write as the last blog was.