Well, i have officially been introducing myself as "Dr. Elliott" for the last 18 days and honestly it feels like it has been months. I am religiously following the rules of surgery

1) eat when you can (which is never)
2) sleep when you can (not so much)
3) Pee when you can (it helps if you don't drink too much)
4) don't touch the pancreas (this one has not been a problem)

Doing pediatric surgery is fantastic because we operate on every part of the body from the lungs, to the testes. and yes, i do actually cut on babies. crazy. kids are so funny too. today i removed from the esophagus a penny from a three year old and a dime from a 10 month old. just wait till the day you here the words "mommy, I ate money!". I have to say though, sometimes the parents are just crazy! While i do make many mistakes, i think i am a decent doctor but i was fired twice this week!

Balancing work and home is hard too, especially with Chris at Annual Training for the Guard in AZ. I force my poor dog outside at 5am when i leave, feel guilty enough to walk him after working 15 hours, then try to study for a couple hours before crashing to bed. Everyday i say i will go to bed earlier and every night i finally make it there by 10ish. I may have fallen asleep while my attending was talking to our pt during clinic.

Life is pretty much what i imagined residency would be and even though it is hard, i am happy, learning, and feel honored to take care of all the babies.