Living life and figuring it out, one little piece at a time

Thursday 17 April 2014

Finished and moving forward

Done.  I'm done. 

It feels so, so good to be able to declare that to the world.  I'm DONE!!! 

Placement finished a few weeks ago.  The most gruelling exam I've ever written followed shortly after.  And a few days ago I got the notice that I passed it.  Which means I'm done. 

On a more challenging note, my grandfather has been ill with esophageal cancer, a particularly invasive and awful cancer, since the winter. He's undergone some really difficult chemo and radiation, and last week he had some very invasive surgery to remove his esophagus, with the hopeful end result of kicking it in the bucket. So please, think of him and wish him a speedy recovery. He's been very much a father to me for my whole life and it is hard to see him suffering.

What's next? 

Well, there's the job interviews. That harrowing process where you have to put your heart and soul on the table and await judgement. There was a very difficult decision about where to start working because I was lucky enough to receive multiple offers.  Problem is I got the offers before I attended the interview in Orangeville, the town that my kids grew up in, that we spent ten years in. And the people giving me the offers needed answers before that interview. Sadly, staying here in Guelph is also not an option, because even though there are two practices here, neither of them are taking a new registrant. So we (our whole family) made the decision to accept one of the offers.  What a hard decision this was!  So many things to balance out!  I do feel like we've made the right decision though.  The interview went really well, I got along great with them, and the practice seems like an excellent model that I'm frankly very excited to try out.  It's also only 30 minutes from my home right now - which is probably too far away to commute but its also close enough that I have enough flexibility that I won't have to move immediately, we can let the kids finish school, maybe play out the summer with the childcare resources we already have in place, before moving. 

What else is next?
A long line of paperwork.  Registering with the College of Midwives (lots of money).  And the Association of Ontario Midwives (also lots of money).  Getting ready to order my equipment (lots of money that luckily will be reimbursed). Getting ready for the national exam whicih allows us to practice in all provinces (also lots of money). And starting to put my ducks together to get hospital privileges in my new community.  I'm still working at this a couple of days a week.  And in the meantime, my partner gets to work as many hours as he wants and not worry about childcare, or logistics, or overtired mommy. I get to hold the fort down for a while - which feels weird!  I've missed the kids a lot, but in that time I also forgot how hard it is to keep the house and family functioning. 

Best of all, despite how burnt out I felt by the end of my very very busy final semester, I miss it already.  I actually went to the Newman Breastfeeding Clinic and Institute yesterday for a day of observation to pick up some extra tips for breastfeeding challenges and it really made me miss taking care of women and babies.  And its been less than a month since I finished! 

I figure that's a  pretty good sign ;) 


 
"Captain Midwife", as Jamie has called me since the day I received that most
wonderful phone call telling me I was accepted into the midwifery program.


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