Oooohhhh, halfway there

January 1st marked the halfway point of my residency. I thought I had a fair idea of what to expect when I started that fateful July 1, but I could never have predicted and still can't quite describe my life over the last 18 months. The glass half-full way of putting it is to say that my experiences have made the first season of Scrubs a lot funnier. There's lots of glass half-empty days, too, when I can't remember the last good day or why I got myself into this in the first place. I wish I could tell you I have enough special, satisfying moments with my patients to keep me going, but that's just not true. If you require gratitude of patients or success against disease and dying to keep you trucking, I am fairly confident my line of work would beat you down and then kick you in the head for good measure.
But I believe God put me here and that He gave me the rest of my life to keep me where He put me. My sweet Nick, for example, regularly cuts me off from checking patient charts at home and meets me with hot chocolate at the end of a long day. And who can stay angry with the world when three waggily tails greet me at the door every evening?
We recently had an ethics lecture in which a silver-haired doctor told us stories to illustrate how being a compassionate doctor makes you a better spouse, parent, etc. I frankly disagree. Maintaining my non-work relationships allows me to be a doctor (hopefully a good one) without completely losing my mind and my cool, not the other way around.
But that's enough of my heavy heart for one day. Until next time, I'll be oooohhhh, livin' on a prayer.