I decided to go home for the weekend. I wanted to switch out my car (I like to borrow a 4-wheel drive car to get through the Chicago winters) and thought I would take advantage of the gorgeous fall weather and break from the Week-5 midterm exams. I left after my clinic shift on Thursday and came back on Sunday. I ended up driving approximately 24 hours, and only being in Maryland for 36 hours, but nonetheless, it was totally worth it!

I ended up getting to enjoy some more Maryland Seafood (aka Maryland Blue Crabs) for the last time this season–I can never get enough of those!

In other recent events, I was finally able to do my Male and Female Sensitive Exams. This is typically a dreaded component/requirement during 7^th trimester. It involves doing a full sensitive exam (prostate exam on a male, and a pelvic exam on a female) on a standardized patient. I was super nervous going into it. We weren’t able to do it over the summer due to COVID restrictions, so we had to do it during our 8^th trimester.

It ended up being a very cool (if that is the right word to use), educational, and beneficial experience. In addition to being taught the proper way to do the actual exams, we were coached on proper communication terminology, and other types of etiquette which I found very helpful. I don’t see myself doing these types of exams in my future practice, however I have confidence in my ability to find something if there is something there if I ever need to do one in the future. I am super grateful for the knowledge and experience I gained from those encounters!