Part 1- Maine

Greetings from midcoast Maine! I am finally getting a chance to sit down and try my hand at this social media stuff before we take off for Thailand and start the real adventure. As I think about how to start documenting this journey, I look back on how this all started about 1 year ago. I was only 3 months into my third year as an emergency medicine resident at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. I was bogged down by my responsibilities both as a resident but also as chief resident, laboring over scheduling and other administrative tasks. Thinking about applying for my first real doctor job was definitely not a priority at the time, whereas the rest of my colleagues had already solidified most of their plans. I was overwhelmed and paralyzed, to say the least.

One day in August or September I was working with Sara Nelson, one of our many amazing female attendings at MMC and now faculty for CMGHF, who mentioned that I should look into this new opportunity she'd heard about through Pen Bay Medical Center. She told me some details about a global health fellowship that was in the works, and within the week I was on the phone with the founder and program director Rohith Malya. We talked for an hour, and by the end of our conversation he said "if you want it, it's yours!". The program seemed too good to be true- a chance to practice in beautiful midcoast Maine AND spend time working in a rural Thai hospital? It was like the opportunity was made for me. Not only that, but my amazing and flexible boyfriend agreed to a 9 month vacation to Thailand, and because he can work from anywhere, he was thrilled about the new adventure. By the beginning of October, we said YES!

And now, we're here in midcoast Maine!  Of course, a lot has happened between October and now. I successfully completed my emergency medicine residency June 30 and we moved our stuff and our cat Kevin up to Camden, 10 minutes up the coast from Pen Bay Medical Center. I started working at PBMC on July 2, and have had the opportunity to enjoy the surge in ED visits that the area experiences during the busy summer months. I also crammed in my written boards on 9/4, which I was able to schedule early due to the fact that I will be out of country in November when they are regularly scheduled.

Camden harbor

Me and Chris on a boat! 

Camden harbor from Mount Battie

My new colleagues and the ED staff at PBMC have been a joy to work with, and I'm sad to say that I only have four more shifts before I bid farewell until next summer. It's been a challenge being a new attending, but I have learned a lot and have enjoyed the freedom to make my own decisions in my own time. While being a single provider overnight is certainly a new challenge that I haven't faced before, for the most part I don't feel alone if I've really needed an extra brain to lean on. We're really excited about our next adventure, but will miss living in Camden and look forward to coming back in June.

This past Saturday Thai physician Chang Noi and Thai emergency medicine nurse Ying landed here in Maine to spend two weeks learning about emergency medicine in the US. It's been great to have them here to teach them about our system in the US, but we've also been peppering them with questions about Thailand.  While I have a sense of what the hospital will be like, the day to day expectations, etc...I truly have no idea what Thailand has in store for us, and that is the most exciting part!

Ying RN and Henry in front of Life Flight of Maine helicopter prior to transport of patient to Maine Medical Center

September 22 we leave the States with a week-long layover in Vienna to visit one of my closest college friends Megan and her husband Juan. From there we have a direct flight to Bangkok. More to come once we get to Southeast Asia!
xoox
SED