When we last met, I was just one week post-op from my open heart surgery. I am now almost 11 months out! I have been so blessed in my recovery and am so glad to report that I feel awesome. I am often asked if I feel much different than before the surgery. Honestly, I don't feel much different. My exercise tolerance is higher and I suppose I get less short of breath going upstairs or things of that nature. It is difficult to say in the sense that I never had symptoms before the procedure. The only difference now is that I get pleuritic chest pain now when I get a cold or do CPR (which is unfortunate being that I am a CPR instructor and future physician). I am beyond blessed to be able to talk so nonchalantly about my recovery.
Other life updates include:
1. Being married to a doctor (yep, that's Mrs. Dr. Garrett Rampon to you!)
2. Moving to St. Louis (yep, I'm still following that silly boy around)
3. Deciding finally on going into Family Medicine
4. Adding another continent to my "Travelled" list - Serbia in August
To flesh these out...
Garrett graduated at the end of May and matched in his top choice of residencies at St. Louis University in Missouri. He began about two weeks ago with night shift in the medical intensive care unit. He has now switched to day shift, but is still tired. We are able to talk on the phone almost every evening and he seems to be adjusting well. I'm sure everyone is as impressed with him as I am. He has one year to enjoy being Dr. and Mrs. Rampon...Dr./Mrs. Kate Rampon is right around the corner (or Dr. Kate Huggins-Rampon as my loving father says).
We have moved/are moving to St. Louis. Carbie and I are holding down the fort in Memphis for another two weeks as I finish up the rotation that I missed having surgery. After this month, I will move to St. Louis and finish the vast majority of my fourth year electives up there. There is an officially unofficial thing called "Spouse Away Year" created for couples just like us. I was very blessed to be accepted to SLU School of Medicine and able to enroll in their fourth year classes. I will still graduate from UTHSC and will retain my responsibilities and connections through email and visits to Memphis. I will be returning for one class at least in March. We basically have everything moved to St. Louis with Garrett. Carbie and I can't wait to be reunited with our Garrett. Turns out that long-distance is actually harder after you have been together and been living together for a while than it was in college when we didn't know the difference.
I have made the decision to pursue family medicine as my "specialty." This decision is based on my experience throughout third year, my being a patient this year, and some tough deep "soul searching." One of my best experiences third year was on my family medicine 8-week rotation. I loved getting time to spend with the patients in clinic. I loved the variety of things that we saw and I loved watching the interactions between my preceptor and his patients. If it were not for the family medicine doctor that found my heart murmur (that no other physician had heard or worked up), I am not sure what trajectory my life would have taken. The physical consequences would have ended in either stroke or heart failure with a very high likelihood my career would have been over before it completely started. Because of the time and care that family doctor took, I am able and inspired to pay forward the time and opportunities he gave to me. Finally, the deep soul searching was honestly not that tough. Since I decided to do medicine, my mind had changed about a million times about what I wanted to do. I wanted to do procedures, deliver babies, counsel psychiatric patients, give stitches, see children, see adults, hear my geriatric patients stories, etc. With family medicine, I get to do it all! I am so excited to be joining the ranks of family physicians. Though it is not the most glamorous or highly paying field, it is were I feel the most at home. It is also the best training for me to be able to continue to pursue medical missions (happy coincidence...right?).
Finally, I am excited to announce that I will be going to Serbia with my church in the middle of August. We are going to establish and run the first annual camp for Serbian children with cancer and their families. We are going to be providing a VBS-like camp for the children and a meaningful spiritual retreat for the parents. I volunteered for one week at "Camp Star Trails" which was a similar camp for MD Anderson patients during my summer internship at Lifeline Chaplaincy. I am super excited to take those skills and experience to Serbia. Our team includes of a former Target House employee, a St. Jude fellow, a pediatrician, and a pediatric resident (happens to be the preacher's wife). We covet your prayers for this endeavor. Specifically, I ask that you pray to prepare our hearts and the hearts of the campers and families for our time together.
In closing, I want to ask for your prayers throughout this season of transition in our lives. We are excited for the changes but also anxious to see what awaits us this next year. Garrett and I have been so blessed in our (almost) two years of marriage and our five years of being together. We survived the hundreds of bug bites, amoebas, overfilled medical school classes, Memphis, medical school, board exams, and open-heart surgery at 24. We can't wait to see what comes next! We know that the Lord is faithful and has shown us incredible mercy thus far. Thanks for reading!
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