"I'm growing up! Aren't I cute?" --Sofie Cheng

Well, I am guilty of procrastinating soooo much, that it seems I haven’t written in almost 6 months. If anyone is still reading this, I will be so shocked! I am sorry to have not written so long, especially since a lot of things have changed (and many things remain the same). I hope that some of you will pick this back up, as I am trying to renew my commitment to my blog as well.

So, here I am…back again.

So much has happened, that I guess I will just summarize.

I finished my last few months of my internship, and officially finished being an intern on June 24! It went by fast, but at the same time, I never thought it would end. What a long, tough, crazy, and educational year. In medicine, I think you grow more as an intern than any other year the rest of your career. I officially became an “upper level” or a “resident”. I now spend some time running the teams in the hospital, responsible for a set of interns and students, as well as a set of patients. I can look back and say it was a pretty good year, but often it didn’t feel that way. But, the last few months became much easier as I became more adept at being an intern.

Some of the boys - Mark, Bridger, me, Jason, Scott, and Andrew - chillin' at intern retreat 2007 in Wrightsville Beach, NC.

Our friends Jenny and Tem, at intern retreat.

More of our friends, Leslie, Mily, Karen, and Nicole at intern retreat.

We redid our lawn! It was filled with weeds and spotty grass, and we’ve always wanted a fenced, grassy lawn for Sofie to run around. We had a fence put up, then had the lawn killed and tilled, and had new sod put down. It’s looking much nicer now, but is still full of crabgrass that we will kill by next spring, and finally will have a nice lawn then.

Above, our lawn after it has been tilled bare.

1 day after the sod has been laid. Ahhhh....green.

After I finished my last days of internship, Nicole and I took a road trip down to Atlanta to see Keith Urban play at Phillips Arena. If you remember our first dance, our song was “Making Memories of Us” by Keith Urban (who sang this very song to Nicole Kidman on his wedding day…but we picked it first!). It was an awesome show! Michelle Branch opened for him…we caught one of her songs. Some of you remember that I had a crush on her too…

Above, the guitars for Keith Urban and the rest of his band, before they came on stage.

There was a catwalk from the main stage to the middle of the floor. We were sitting about 15 feet from the catwalk stage! Sweet!

Keith Urban...great show!

Sofie continues to grow…the last pictures on my blog of her were as a puppy. Now she is about 65 pounds! She’s training us to be good parents. She’s become such a sweet dog, excellent with kids, doesn’t beg for food, and makes a so-so guard dog. She acts like she growls when someone new shows up, but I doubt she’d ever attack even a burglar!

Jenny and Jeff had their second child, a baby girl named Kaelyn. She is absolutely adorable, and her big brother Tyler is taking care of her! They were just up here visiting, and we had a blast swimming in the neighborhood pool, visiting the museum of natural science in Raleigh, and going to play video games at Frankie’s! Interestingly, Nicole’s cousins are also Katelyn and Tyler…I’m not sure why my sister is choosing almost identical names for their kids!

Tyler giving his baby sister, Kaelyn, some love.

Don't we look like a happy family! Good thing they're not ours...I couldn't handle it!

I have decided on a career path for myself – after much deliberation over whether I do primary care (clinic) medicine, being a hospitalist (a “hospital doctor”), or pursuing a subspecialty (such as gastroenterology, cardiology, nephrology, etc), I have decided to pursue a career as a gastroenterologist (GI doctor). It’s a great field that involves a lot of interesting disease, involves a lot of different parts of the body, and has really cool procedures (which are much like toys or video games). As a specialist, you do get to spend more time with your patients on each visit, and don’t have to rush to see 35-40 patients a day just to pay the bills. I’ll be applying this year to be a GI “fellow” after I finish residency. A “fellow” is a step above being a resident, when you are training for a subspecialty. Once you finish your fellowship, you are finally an “attending”, or full-fledged doctor.

Nicole has continued working for the UNC GI program, and is really enjoying her job. She sees patients in her and her attendings’ clinics about 3 days a week, and helps out with research and patient follow-ups and procedures the other 2 days. Her bosses are excellent – they really teach her well, and really appreciate her work…hard to get that combination from a lot of people. She works with world-class GI doctors who specialize in esophageal and stomach problems, and specifically cancer and precancerous lesions of the esophagus. They are among the leaders in the world in treating a condition called Barrett’s esophagus, a precancerous lesion of the esophagus coming from excessive and chronic acid reflux from the stomach. I am very proud of her! (Plus she makes all the money for us)

Well, I think that’s enough for now. Now that I’m starting this blog back up, I can start my random journal entries and free associations. I am really going to try and keep this up!

Also, I’m trying to start up a MySpace page, to also keep in touch with everyone that way too…

Miss everyone,

Alan