Res Ipsa Loquitur 2.0

I made it!  As of yesterday, June 20th, 2008, I am a board-eligible general surgeon.  My last day of residency started like most others - by rounding with my team.  Rather than do a senior skip day like some of my classmates, I went to the academic program that constituted most of the day.  However, I did take off a couple hours to turn in keys, badges, scrubs, and pick up gifts.  After the talks were over (and very good ones at that), my parents and I went to graduation where we met up with Traci, her parents, and my friends and attendings.  Our graduation ceremony was held at the Indiana State Museum in the giant atrium under the giant “INDIANA” sculpture by Robert Indiana.  After mingling and having a nice dinner, we had faculty introduce each of the residents and each resident gave a little speech thanking the attendings, fellow residents, and his or her families.  Since my attending mentioned my trait of impersonating faculty, I gave a little demonstration to the audience, who seemed to find it very funny (especially one of them who impersonated me afterwards - by posing defensively as if to fend off blows from him).  After all the speeches were over, the residents presented teaching awards to faculty, gave a gift of a digital camera to the Surgery Department, and gave our “den mothers” gift cards to local restaurants.  Finally, we mingled some more, took pictures, and collected our diplomas and gifts of books (mine being Mastery of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgery by Eubanks, Swanstrom, and Soper).  It was a fun evening, though sobering to realize that after six years, I have finally come to the end of my general surgery training.

However, this week I will finish packing and head off to Cincinnati to begin my year of fellowship.  Today my parents and I have spent much of the day packing books and belongings in preparation for the move, and I bequeathed my collection of 3rd year medical student clerkship books to the fresh 3rd year students on the surgery rotation.  Even with books that are approaching (if not already) 10 years of age, the students grabbed them like sharks in a feeding frenzy.   I also dropped off my old college and med school computers and printers at the Indiana Tox Drop for recycling and picked up a frame for my new diploma.  In the evening, Traci joined my parents and me for dinner, where she gave me a personalized halogen pen light and a cake shaped like a castle, and afterwards came home to meet Franklin (the dog).  Tomorrow I’ll continue to pack and otherwise prepare for the move.

I’m sad to be leaving Indianapolis because this has become my home.  I’ve grown to love this city and its people, and would very much like to come back after fellowship is over.  When I matched here six years ago I couldn’t fathom living in Indiana, of all places, and now I can’t imagine living anywhere else.   I don’t know where my career will take me, but I’ll always have fond memories of my time here as a resident.