Psych Rotation done

Jordan completed his Psych rotation on Friday, September 21st. It was a 6 week rotation, and let me tell you..I am SO GLAD psych was his first rotation after moving to Baton Rouge. His hours were typically 7:30am-noonish Monday-Friday. He would stay at the hospital library to study and usually come home right at 3pm so we could ride together to go pick up Bradley in the pickup line at school.  Not every day, but most days. I loved that because we could recap our day, and I could hear some highlights of his day.without patient details of course. His shorter days made me feel more comfortable navigating a new city as well because we could figure it out together. 

On his first day of this rotation he came home, all excited like a little school kid on the first day of school. He was happy because his partner was a fellow student he's (we've) been friends with since MERP days. It is always so nice to see familiar faces!! We haven't seen a lot of our friends from St. Maarten in over a year now! So there were only 2 of them on the psych service as students and he really appreciated the personal, hands on experience. Another thing to note is that Psych is completed at Baton Rouge General Mid-City campus, and food and parking are free for students.

 I don't know exactly what they did every day besides see patients, but some of the "extra" things they did were attend an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting, watched the movie "A Beautiful Mind," witnessed Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), and attended a morning at the Behavioral Wellness Clinic (group therapy). At the end of the 6 weeks he took the Psych shelf exam and just found out yesterday he passed and did well. He won't know if he honored the rotation until the attending does his evaluation. 

Jordan started his Internal Medicine (IM) rotation on Monday at the Bluebonnet campus, and it's already a whole different ballgame. I will recap it at the end of the 12 weeks! 

The only photo of Jordan I have from the past 6 weeks!

Moving to Baton Rouge, LA for MS3 & 4

We found out in the beginning of April that we were going to be placed in Baton Rouge for clinical year MS3. We had about a weeks worth time with Jordan trying to negotiate (aka BEG) with AUC to let us go to Michigan for his clinicals. At the end of the day, Michigan's schedule didn't work out with the 60 day rule so we had to let that plan go. Our next option was at Kern in Bakersfield, CA...BUT they couldn't place us there until October after Jordan did pediatrics (6wks) and surgery (12wks) at another location. That didn't work out for us because Bradley would be starting Kindergarten in August/September. Our next option was Baton Rouge. We were also offered Miami, but we didn't think we would be able to afford it financially.

We knew that Baton Rouge didn't offer OBGYN or pediatrics as part of their core rotations. That is why Jordan went to East Meadows, NY first for his 6 week pediatrics rotation. This allowed me to keep working to save money for our move and also time to research schools for Bradley and safe areas to live within our med school budget. Jordan got home from New York on July 6th and we moved to Baton Rouge on July 29th. Those 3 weeks Jordan was on "break" were so helpful because he was able to help me pack up our apartment and get everything ready for the move while I completed 64 orders before our move. 

Let me tell you, moving around for clinical rotations with a family is NOT ideal. It is expensive..apartment deposits, moving trucks, utility deposits, fuel, etc. We also bought a couch and kitchen table for our apartment because we had sold our previous furniture when we moved to St. Maarten. Luckily, Jordan's grandparents own a 16' enclosed trailer and were kind enough to let us use it for our move. That saved us about $1k that we would have had to spend for a moving truck if it wasn't for their generosity. 

Saying goodbye to Kansas! The day we moved to Baton Rouge

We were thankful that Jordan's uncle and Mom were able to assist us with our move. We all rotated driving the 10 hours or so between 2 cars and the truck hauling the trailer. We did stop in Shreveport, LA on the first night, and then finished up the drive to Baton Rouge on the second day. Unloading the trailer was a breeze with the extra hands. We are so grateful for their help. Oh, and did I mention that our kids are perfect travelers? Not exaggerating. They were troopers..no meltdowns, no car sickness, no major stops. 

Overall the move to Baton Rouge was seamless. I will say though that when we move for residency, wherever that may be, I WANT TO HIRE MOVERS! That probably won't be realistic financially, but maybe if I start saving my pennies now. We are in Baton Rouge for the next 2 years- Jordan is in his Psych rotation now, followed by Internal Med, Surgery, Family Med, and OBGYN in Miami (May 2019) and then he'll do a handful of elective rotations in 4th year. He has most of his electives scheduled in Baton Rouge, and will probably do an away ER rotation somewhere else, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. 

Thanks for reading!