Is a pediatrics residency in my future????

Last night instead of studying like I should have, I took the AMA specialty match questionnaire (it asks you 130 questions about your personality and preferences in medicine and then tells you which medical specialty would be the best match of you). A waste of time, I know, particularly as it is at least 2 and a half years before I even need to think about which residency/specialty I would like to go into. However, procrastinating is so much fun when you should be doing something (for example, studying for 4 final exams), but are doing something that you don't need to do for over two years. Anyway, the specialty match thing said the #1 match for me would be Pediatrics. My number #2-8 matches were all the Oncology sub-specialties (go figure!), #9 was Anesthesiology, and #10 was Infectious Diseases.

One of my instructors of the Kenya course I took in 2007 told me I should study specialize in pediatric infectious disease so that I could come back to Kenya and help improve the treatment children who are living with AIDS and Tuberculosis. (The current standard for treating children with infectious diseases in East Africa appears to be quite dismal). Oh well... we will see.

Kids are so darn cute! (This is a picture of my little sister Monica showing off her ballet skills). At the last Saturday clinic with my preceptor a little 2 year old Ethiopian girl gave me one of her Winnie the Pooh stickers that she had received from the nurse. It was really sweet. I thought for a while, "Yeah, I think I could really enjoy taking care of children."


You all have seen this picture before - a picture of me and a child from the Potika IDP camp in Uganda. Are more infectious refugee children in my future? Only time will tell.