"I don't have a favorite song, or a favorite book that I read over and over, or a favorite game that I play ... what I love is what I do."

Today, I finally got around to asking my preceptor why he chose OB/GYN. His answer was simple: it's what he loves to do! I hope that someday I can find something that I love as much as he loves delivering babies and helping women. So far, I really like OB/GYN myself, but I wish I had the rotation a little later in my clinical year. Right now I feel overwhelmed by the concept of being on rotation, period, and I don't think I'll get to appreciate this specialty as much because I have nothing to compare it to. But, I do like it right now!

Today and Friday were just regular clinic days, nothing too spectacular. I've started going in on prenatal visits myself, which is nice because it makes me feel important and needed. Shadowing is great and everything, but I think I do best when I'm busy, so getting to do things makes me feel more involved and happier to be there! Plus, prenatal visits are easy and there's not much to mess up, so that's good. Also, today I changed the dressing on the patient with the infected C-section scar all by myself (with my preceptor's supervision, of course), and that was stressful. Obviously, it's painful for the patient for you to pull out the old packing material, clean the wound, and put in new packing material. But, it's necessary for the patient to feel better in the end, so even if the patient is groaning and crying you have to keep going, which kind of goes against your natural instincts. So that was stressful! But I did it, and bandaged her up again, and I'll do it all over again on Wednesday.

I'm also getting better at being more confident and forceful when it comes to exams. Last week, my preceptor would laugh at me for being too gentle when I was doing a pelvic exam or feeling a pregnant woman's abdomen. Now, I do it correctly and confidently, and he is proud!

Tomorrow is another clinic day, and Wednesday is surgery. This week I get to see a LEEP, as well as a laparoscopic tubal ligation. Pretty cool!