Family Medicine in Big Sky Country

Hello again everyone!

I know you missed me, you don't have to admit it. I just know it.

(Hello? tap tap tap... Is this thing on?)

Family Medicine out here in Whitefish, MT is FREAKING AWESOME! No, I am not exaggerating. The doctors are marvelous, the patients are varied (some good, some bad, some easy, some confusing, some young, some old, some in between), the area is beautiful, and I am 15 minutes away from big city things like Best Buy, Target, Lowes, and Home Depot. I am finding, on my second day of the rotation, that my 6 weeks here might be a lot like my 4 weeks in Red Lodge, MT when I did the RUOP part of my training.

What happened in Red Lodge is that I found I could definitely LOVE Family Medicine, however, I would need to practice in a small town to do so. One of the reasons that I had eschewed (that is right, I said eschewed) Family Medicine before was because in the city, you don't get to do much. You really just have people that have sore throats and things like that, and then they don't always come and see you. Additionally, you don't get to practice in-patient medicine. However, out here, it is an entirely different story! You do everything for everyone (just about). The Family docs out here admit patients, deal with in-patient practice, have patients that range in age from teeny-weeny baby to great-great-great grandma Eloise.

Today, my patients ranged in age from 13 years to 70 years. The challenging part about that is that each age group has its own problems that are common to them. As a doctor, you have to understand that concept.

The problem, however, is that I never thought I would practice in a small town. It was never a plan of mine (or Mike's). The funny thing is that there is this female doctor here who visited this town as a medical student, came back for residency, and then stayed as a practicing physician. Interesting...

So, I am not saying that Mike and I are moving to Whitefish (or Kalispell) anytime soon, but it is weird that it seems like it could at least be a distant option for me. An even bigger surprise to me is that it would mean that Family Medicine is an option for me.

Argh, I hope that 3rd year isn't all like this... That would mean that I would like EVERYTHING and have a HORRIBLE time deciding which field to go into.