We celebrated our first Fourth of July in Pittsburgh! The three day weekend was really nice and full of action! Sunday morning Paul and I were lazy and then caught the church service. I went for a run in the afternoon and thought that I was going to suffer from severe heat stroke. People were looking at me funny, and now I realized it was because my face was extremely red and I appeared to be on the verge of death. After my run I came home quickly and showered before heading downtown to the hospital with Ryan.

We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to shadow Macky while he took trauma call. I am as fresh as med students come, so I definitely played the undergraduate roll of shadowing and watching from a safe distance. There were a few fast pace cases that came into the Trauma bay which required all all capable hands. I was able to observe a variety of procedures and test my stomach for trauma. To my relief I didn't feel faint or queezy, so I made it through med school test numero uno.

In addition to shadowing in the trauma bay, I also was able to go into the OR and observe a few surgeries. I am fond of intestinal surgeries, as one could imagine, and I was able to see a few belly surgeries which was AWESOME. Again, I can barely handle watching an IV or LP, but for some reason surgeries were fine to watch (even sleepless!). The night spent shadowing helped me learn a lot. It was so nice to be able to see the different procedures and services working together. I know I'm really going to like this job....

On the fourth, I came home around 9:30-10AM and blabbed to Paul about the previous evening, obviously excited about it, and asking questions about how everything comes together. I took a nap until the early afternoon and then Paul and I took our mopeds up to Children's Hospital because I had to do a few things at work. He saw the spectacular view from Rangos and saw the tissue culture hoods were the magic happens.

We came back just in time before it literately rained on the parade. It down poured on the rest of the MSTP who were grilling out at Darragh, so I'm glad we held tight at home. Overall it was a good Independence Day, even without the fireworks!