Sad day

Yesterday my best friend moved away to start residency in Omaha, Nebraska.  I will miss you Joel!

Zoo lights

Ghost Hunting

Jamaica

Graduation!

 

Graduation

On May 21, 2011 I graduated from medical school and became Dr. Mackintosh.  Pretty weird I must say.  Graduation is bitter sweet.  I am SO glad to be done with school...FINALLY but also sad to see my friends leave and move on with their lives in cities across the country. 

 Jessica, Lindsay, and I at the Dean's Reception

 Brock, Me, Joel at Dean's Reception

 Harriet Hopf and I with my Research award

 Alison and I

 Alison, Me, and Jen

 Me, Stephan, and Jen

 Me, Griffin, and Joel

 Me and Joel

 Me, Jawaria, Jessica, Monica, and Kristin at Graduation

 Jessica, Brock, Graham, Joel, Me, and Cameron at Graduation

 Me and Graham

 Me and Joel (I don't know how to flip these pictures!)

 Me and Lara

 Me and Nick

 Me and Meri

 Me and James

 Me and Jessica

 Me and Lindsay

 Alison, Me, and Char

 Me and Taylor

 Me and Harriet

 Me and CT

Hard times are ahead and loneliness is already sinking in, but soon I will be too busy to notice.  I am crossing my fingers for fellow interns to call my friends, but no one will ever replace a couple of the people I met while in medical school.  I am so lucky to have them as my friends and will miss them so much.

Onward and upward!!!

Karrie

My cousin Karrie lost her battle with cancer on March 15, her 34th birthday.  I attended a wake in her honor this evening and all I can say is what an amazing woman!  She was positive until the end!!!  My heart aches for her husband and children as well as the countless friends and family members who loved and will miss her. 


We love you Karrie and your amazing laugh!

Always a Utah girl...

The results are in and I got my top choice for residency!!!  I will be doing my intern year at IMC (Intermountain Medical Center) and Anesthesiology at the University of Utah.

I couldn't be happier (well unless I could figure out how to get a couple of my best friends to stay)

Sinking in...

I am really going to miss you medical school friends when they leave.  It just started sinking in tonight that my best friend won't be here in 3 months.  :(  Wow, is my life going to be different.  Match day will be bitter sweet.  Today I feel like I don't even want to know because it will be real when we read our envelopes and know for sure we may never see each other again (or at least not every day that we do now).  
I guess this is what is meant by growing up is hard.

I will cherish the next 3 months I have with these very special people in my life!  

This year has a theme...

Unfortunately it is CANCER.

Last year ended with news one of my favorite high school teachers had breast cancer, and on Dec 24 she lost her battle.

Yesterday, my 42 year old cousin also lost her battle to cancer and left a beautiful, amazingly strong 15 year old daughter behind.  My heart breaks for them and I wish there was something more I could do.  Medicine has such a long way to go and I pray within my lifetime we find a cure or at the very least a better way to treat cancer so that tragic stories like this become a rarity instead of common.

Unfortunately, bad luck struck 3 times for me this year and another cousin (32 years old this time) is suffering from stage 4 breast cancer and was recently put on hospice.  She has taught me more than she could ever know about living life to the fullest.  She never passed up an opportunity to be with her family on vacation and often said "I can be sick at home or sick ____(fill in the blank with vacation destination).  She was given 3 months to live almost 2 years ago!  Nothing makes me happier than proving a doctor wrong.

I feel truly blessed to be able to interact with patients at such a vulnerable time in their lives, and my understanding of their situation has increased exponentially over the past few months although I am the first to admit I don't really know how it feels to lose a mother, wife, daughter, etc and my heart aches.

Thank you Terre, Karrie and Christi for allowing me to know you!

23 days

I have 23 days to make the biggest decision of my life (Where I want to do residency) and I am freaking out. I thought I would rank Utah #1 for sure, no questions asked, but now I am not so sure. Part of me thinks I really need to get out of here, but I don't know how to make the decision. I thought about ranking my intern years out of state high so I would be gone for at least a year, but that now sound like a big hassle.

What is a girl to do? To leave or not to leave that is the question.