Ta Daaaaa!!!!!!

We did it!  We are officially done with residency as of Friday, June 29 at 7pm!  Strangely, I don't think it has really sunk in yet that we are no longer residents, but I'm sure it will become more real as the days go by.

Truthfully, we actually had our graduation ceremony two weeks ago on June 15.  Mayo has a couple of historic homes that used to belong to the founding Mayo brothers, and one of these homes is used for a lot of the graduation dinners.  Since each residency program has their own graduation ceremony or dinner, they obviously can't all happen on the last official day of residency, so they get spread out throughout the month of June.  Hence, the reason we actually "graduated" two weeks ago!

It's been a long journey to get where we are...four years of college at St. Olaf, two years of medical school in Duluth, a year of medical school in Buffalo, MN with the RPAP (Rural Physicians Associate Program), a year of medical school in Minneapolis, MN, and now three years of Family Medicine residency in Rochester.  Twelve years of post-high school education!  Wow!  This is the official end of our formal education, but of course we will never stop learning, since there's always things we don't know, and always new things coming down the pipeline.  But amazing to think the formal part is done...  In some ways it went by really quickly, and in other ways it seems like it took FOREVER to get here!  I guess staying in the hospital overnight every 3 or 4 nights for the better part of a year and a half will do that to your sense of passing time!

Below are some pictures from the last few weeks of residency and our graduation ceremony and dinner.

 Last night of OB call for Kristi!  Matt happened to have a patient of his own in labor that night, so we got to hang out together for a few hours!  We spent 6 months of our residency doing OB, on call every third night.  That's a lot of overnights in the hospital!

 

 

 One of the labor and delivery rooms at Methodist Hospital.  We'll be experiencing these rooms from the patient perspective in just a few short weeks!

 And this is where we sometimes actually slept while on OB, the good old Family Medicine OB call room.  It's windowless, so you can't tell what time of day it is and you tend to get a little depressed without any sunshine.

 Here's where the real work of doctoring happens, the computer in our call room.  Did you think we actually took care of patients?  Nope, mostly we just document things on a computer.

 The graduates on June 15, 2012.
From left to right Jason, Maggie, Bill, Kim, Britton, Kristi, and Matt.  Missing from photo, Jeff, who was away with military stuff.  :(

 Hooray!

 Matt's dad came down from Delano for the graduation ceremony.

 And so did Matt's Aunt Sue.  Uncle Craig was unfortunately previously committed to an event back home, and we look forward to celebrating with him next time we see him.

 Matt's Grandma Eleanor came for graduation also!  What a privilege to have her there.

Kristi's mom and dad and sister Kate were part of the festivities, too.

 Kristi's grandparents came from all the way down the street to celebrate!  We have been so lucky to live so close by for the past three years.  Charlotte loves to go visit them.

My last day in clinic on Friday, June 29.  Some of the nurses shredded a bunch of papers and then when I walked out of my last patient room they threw it in the air like confetti!!!  From left to right:  Cassie, Julie, me, and Amy.

:)

Inside one of our exam rooms at the clinic.

Again, inside an exam room.

And here is the final final picture of us at work, June 29 7:20 pm as Matt finished up his last duties as the senior on our inpatient hospital service.  Charlotte and I picked him up and then we went out to celebrate with Chipotle and Dairy Queen!!!

Next post:  what's next for our family?  Stay tuned!