It’s been a while since I last shared any of my musings on medicine. I thought as I enter my final year of residency training and count down the months before I can practice independently, it’s time for an update. I still remember vividly how it felt a year ago to get used to introducing myself to patients as ‘Dr. Martineau’ as I entered the room. Although, this has now become second nature – this first week as a second-year resident I find myself still signing notes with the designation R1 (1st Year Resident) rather than R2 (2nd Year Resident). I pointed this out to one of my new supervisors as I scratched out R1 and scribbled over with R2 on the paper chart and said the designation aloud. He responded: ”now you just need the D2.”
My first year of residency was rewarding but also clouded by social isolation. Motivated to experience somewhere new and train in a smaller community, I decided to move across the country because in classic Alanna style, I thought “If I’m going to move, I should really move.” I landed on the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) partly because of the game of CaRMs but also because I liked the idea of being able to canoe on a lake while doing home call shifts. Having never been to any of the communities NOSM serves, it was a roll of the dice on where I should rank as a home base and communities to choose for rural rotations. I ranked Sudbury at the top because it was only four hours North of Toronto, and hey – I have friends in Toronto.
I did not anticipate when I made the decision to move across the country to a place where I didn’t really know anyone, that the pandemic we hoped and thought would be long over, would still be a thing. I remember being in clinic during my pediatrics rotation last fall listening to a pre-teen who had moved to Sudbury recently and was struggling because he had no friends and was unable to do the things he enjoyed like going to the pool (still closed from lockdowns), and I thought ”I feel your pain kid.”
The truth is the pandemic has been hard on many people’s mental health in different ways. Some leaders choose this as the reason to pretend Covid isn’t here anymore, as with many things, there’s no easy answer but I feel we’ve mostly been miles away from the best possible response during the last two years. In any case, more interactions are appreciated…balancing risk vs reward continues to be a challenge.
As a side note, one of the things I’ve often said about Calgary is that no two people are more than two degrees of separation from knowing one another. For a city with a population of roughly 1.5 million people, this can sometimes be hard to believe. I stand by it though. I’m reminded by the many times I went out with new friends from med school who would remark we couldn’t go anywhere in Calgary without me running into someone I knew. I mused that because of this, I sometimes craved anonymity. I appreciated the irony of having made that comment before I moved to Sudbury and found myself with a little too much anonymity!
It turned out Sudbury and I were meant to have a short term relationship. I had several friends say it was a cool town and it probably is under different circumstances, heck Stompin’ Tom wrote a song about it. However, I realized in hindsight that Thunder Bay was a full 12 hours closer to Calgary by driving time. Having my best buddy Joni along for the ride, visits back home were limited to car travel (32 hours Sudbury to YYC). I requested a transfer to Thunder Bay for my second year and thankfully had it approved.
I’m grateful I had the opportunity to experiences places I’d never been before and for time I spent in Alberta and BC this Spring. I made my way East again and arrived in Thunder Bay on a beautiful, sunny day in mid June. As my movers unloaded my things, a neighbour brought over a card and cookies welcoming me to the neighbourhood while another next door welcomed me from her back deck. It was already a totally different experience than my 9.5 months in Sudbury.
I’m looking forward to experiencing more of Northern Ontario and as Corin Raymond says about Sudbury “you’re not really in Northern Ontario if you can drive there from Toronto without stopping to pee.” Incidentally, Corin was the only friend who came to visit while I was in Sudbury. I did have more takers for Manitoulin Island though.
Since arriving, I finished my last block of pure Internal Medicine. This included a string of 26-hour call shifts and a lot more responsibility than I had as a medical student. Because of the Internal Medicine grind, I have not yet had much time to explore so I am looking forward to doing that and getting a little more settled in. I’m especially looking forward to getting back to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. Although I stopped there last year on my way to Sudbury, it was only a short overnight stay.
This was a long way of sharing that I’m happy to be entering my second year of residency (aka R2) and opportunities to explore practice and life in a new place.
May the Force be with us as we head into what is already being labelled the SEVENTH wave of Covid. Although Covid is sadly, still very much a thing, I’m feeling hopeful about getting to do more activities I like to do, especially with the promise of bands I know passing through town soon.
Sincerely,
Dr. A. Martineau, R2
D2
NB: D2 is not an actual designation I’m aware of in medicine.
Mental Health Resources
If you’re struggling with your mental health, please reach out to your family physician (if you’re fortunate enough to have one) and/or other professionals for support.
Resources vary widely by province but here is a national one:
https://www.wellnesstogether.ca/en-CA
I also frequently recommend the Anxiety Canada website to people who are good at working through things on their own and struggle with anxiety.
Alanna Martineau 