Sunday, March 15, 2015

February: The Wintery blur




Spring is finally beginning to show its beautiful face here in Greenville. After a cold and occasionally snowy winter, there are signs all around us that it is almost over.  February was a blur of a month and March is quickly passing us by.  Richard was on a geriatric rotation for the month of February and after a few rough months with very little quality time together, we were able to enjoy time with one another (and very often many friends/family). 

 Richard’s first free weekend of the month we had my parents, my aunt & uncle plus some hilarious friends come visit for a fun weekend.  We saw Wicked and ate some wonderful food around town. The following weekend, my bff from childhood came for a quick weekend and we got to see Jason Mraz in concert at the Peace Center.  Poor Richard came down with an awful stomach bug just as Brooke was leaving. It was pitiful to see him so sick but thankfully it was only a 36 hour bug and before I knew it he was requesting a hotdog for lunch! The next weekend we headed to Rock Hill for a visit with Richard’s family where we got to spend good quality time with all of the grandparents, his aunt and uncle, his brother Rob and of course his parents.  Our final weekend we got to spend some good time with one another but yet again we were busy.
The month flew by so quickly and we honestly only had 1 day of just us working in the yard/ doing nothing but being able to spend time with important people was worth everything! Richard’s elective rotations are so few and far between that when he has weekends free we feel the need to go see and visit with people we never have the opportunity to check in with otherwise. As of Monday (3/9) the 3:45 am alarm clock is once again going off and Richard heads into the hospital for long days. This month he will have 1 day off a week (all week days this month) and will be working roughly 80 hours a week. As he kissed me goodbye Monday morning, I jokingly said “see you next month” but there is some truth to the statement.  Luckily this rotation isn’t nearly as bad as some of the others that he has had and we will be able to enjoy dinners together at night. 

In this past rotation we both made an effort to reach out and get involved more with the church that we attend. We attended a community group (week night bible study/ Sunday school class) and met a lot of wonderful people. I've also joined a group of women whose husbands are also physicians. We've got a spectrum of ages from resident wives to women who are seasoned veterans in this life style. It's been a wonderful support and has been very insightful about so many topics. I've enjoyed meeting a few of the other resident spouses and developing friendships with these awesome women. It has been very rewarding for both us to get involved in various groups and it has made use feel more connected to Greenville in an entirely different way. 

We absolutely loved having so many people come visit us in February and hope that this trend will continue throughout 2015.  Richard will finish this next bad month in time for his birthday and then we'll have back to back elective rotations in April and May! Thank you for those of you who support us, call to check in on us, send us letters, who love us and remain constants in our lives. We could not get through this difficult intern year without you.