Becoming a doctor?

This question haunted me during my last high school years. And the answer was really difficult though I have always had a keen interest in medicine and science in general.

My father is a doctor. For as long as I can remember medicine was (and still is) a central part of my family’s life. I liked to listen to my dad’s stories about his studies, his work, his experiences with patients. I liked to visit him in his office.

Therefore it might seem natural that I went into medicine as well. But in contrast to many of my friends who knew not much more about medicine and doctors than the image that was/is created in the newspapers and TV, I knew from firsthand experience that being a doctor has not much to do with this image. Weekends were often spent only with my mother because my dad was on call, at conferences or finishing things he didn’t manage to get done during the week.

It took quite a long time for me to figure out whether I should go into medicine as well. My dad was not of much help. He probably didn’t want to influence me – in one way or the other. The decision was made only days before the end of the application period. Until then I was thinking more about other opportunities - like biology or law or maths – than about going to med school.

Well, now I am glad I decided to become a doctor. Even though it takes away a lot of my free time, it feels like the right thing.

Finally home

It's 11:14 pm and I am finally home after a very long day. I had to leave the house early in the morning to go to work. One of my colleagues is on vacation, one is sick and one went home at 10 am because she was on call yesterday. So there were only two other residents besides me at work today - for 60 in-patients and a more than full emergency room. Great, especially on a Friday. All the more because it is my grandfather's 80th birthday today and I wanted to leave early (around 2 pm).
Well, I left the hospital at 4:30 pm and went straight to the restaurant where my whole family was already eating loads of cake. I was so tired when I arrived but after a while I felt better and could enjoy it. It was so great to see them all! The party went on and we had a lot of fun. I realized once again how much I love my family!

Today is the day

Remember my last post? Especially the part about my favorite senior physician leaving the hospital?
Today was her last day. During lunch time all of the physicians and a lot of the nurses of our department met in one of the doctor offices for a farewell party. We ate huge amounts of cake and a delicious salad. Though we had a lot of fun at the party (like always, it is such a great team) it's so sad to see her go. I knew it would be hard but when we said goodbye after work today we couldn't keep ourselves from crying.
The good thing is that we decided to meet for dinner next month.

Happy and sad

I can't decide if I am happy or sad right now.

Happy because the whole remodeling thing of my appartment is nearly done. There are some things that still need to be finished, but when I compare it to some weeks ago it is awesome. Now it looks like an appartment, not like some old dirty place...

Sad because I'll have to find something else to spend my evenings with. Wait, no, that's not what I wanted to say.

Let's try it again:

Sad because one of the senior physicians at the hospital where I work is leaving on Friday. She moved to another city and found a new job there. Sure, for her it is much better as she won't have to spend so much time in the car each day. She's my favorite "teacher", you can ask her everything every time. Though I've spend only four months working with her, she's become a good friend and I'm really going to miss her.

A busy weekend

I'm so glad the weekend is over! That might sound a bit strange because weekends are normally a time where one can relax and recover from the stress of the week.

Well, my weekend was busy, too busy. I was on call Saturday, fortunately only during the day. When I got home at nearly 10 pm, I was so tired that I went straight to bed.

Sunday morning was spent remodeling the kitchen in my new appartment. It's still far from finished but at least I've reached a point where one can imagine what it's going to look like some day. I'm going to post pictures soon.

After lunch with my parents I went biking. The summer is finally here and I don't know how long the good weather is going to last. So I just had to go - despite feeling already exhausted before my ride.


Seeing these cows was one of the positive moments of the tour. Apart from that, it wasn't a pleasure at all. My legs were too tired and the hills felt like mountains.
I'll give it another try next weekend.

There are days

when everything goes right. And then there are days when everything goes wrong and nothing can save the day. Today belongs to the last category. At least that was what I thought when I got home from work. There had been so much trouble, especially for a Friday, that everyone was already stressed by noon.

But a few minutes after I had arrived home something happened that totally saved me from falling into deep despair: my best friend from university whom I hadn't met or even spoken to since March called! I really really like her, she's one of the people I share so many memories with that I can't imagine what life would be without her. We lived in different parts of Germany for more than one year, until I moved back here some weeks ago, so stopping by for a short visit was impossible for a long time. I am so glad about having the opportunity to see her more often again!

Now I'm editing some photos taken in the last months.

This one is from Italy (once again), taken in the beautiful area of Cinqueterre.

Being on call

One of the disadvantages of my job (which I generally like very much) is being on call at least 4-5 days – let’s better call it nights - a month. You never know what’s going to happen. You might have a really quiet night where you can sleep 7 or 8 hours. You might have a night where you are awakened by radio every time you’ve just fallen asleep (like the terrible night I had last week). Or you might have a night where there’s no chance to go to bed and try to sleep at all. I don’t mind being alone, being the only one responsible, you get used to that. But what I mind is not being able to get a good night’s rest.