This picture says it all! The countdown is on! Marc just has FIVE more days of being a resident!
(UPDATE: Since starting this post several days ago, he only has ONE more day left!! Woo hoo!!) He finishes next Tuesday, but had this past Monday and next Monday off. Then, he'll finally be a "real" doctor! Hee hee! Actually, the second he graduated from medical school in 2005 be became a "real doctor." But, people still refer to him as a med student, an "almost" doctor, optometrist, etc. He has been Dr. Marc Moore for 4 years now, but will soon move from an ophthalmology resident to an attending ophthalmologist. When you hear a physician referred to as an "attending," it means they are completely out of med school, residency, and fellowship; finished with ALL their training and finally out there on their own practicing medicine. That also means no more being talked down to, working crazy obscene hours, and being called a student! Back to the optometrist thing, it's so funny, but people are always confusing an optometrist with an ophthalmologist.
Just to give you a little lesson in it since I'm a huge expert (ha! :) ), they are very different. An optometrist goes to four years of optometry school after college and then is on their own as an optometrist. They do not go to medical school and are not considered medical doctors. They do not perform surgeries and they can only write prescriptions for basic eye-related situations. Optometrists mainly give eye exams, prescribe eyeglasses & contact lenses, and can deal with eye issues that may not stem from other health issues. Ophthalmologists, however, attend four years of medical school after college. They study many different types of medicine and then decide which area in which they would like to complete an internship, residency, and possible fellowship. Marc went to Univ. of Louisville for medical school, then completed a one-year long internal medicine internship at Baptist Hospital here in Nashville, then began his ophthalmology residency at Vandy. Ophthalmologists are medical doctors and can write a prescription for any health issue. They can perform surgeries. They can perform all the functions that an optometrist performs, on top of detecting deeper eye issues and being familiar with many different types of medicine. In Marc's training, he has worked 2 am shifts in the ER, assisted in thyroid surgeries, dealt with kidney disease, and even delivered a baby during his 2nd year of med school. It is soooo helpful having him around because he has saved us a lot of dr. visits! Heck, he could have even delivered his very own son! :) So, optometrists do not go through as much training as ophthalmologists and are not as well-rounded in the knowledge they obtain, such as studying all parts of the body, but, they are finished with schooling MUCH sooner and can get out there in the workforce. That means, they make money much sooner and aren't in as much debt! Marc did once consider going to optometry school, but he also had a strong desire to be able to perform surgeries and be familiar with different fields of medicine. Okay, hopefully you're a little bit clearer on all that now! I was just as confused as most people are until finally really understanding it all like last week. hee hee! Well, really a little bit before that, but it did take me awhile to get it all straightened out! I'm so thankful for a patient husband.
Even though residency is not officially over, we have already attended a graduation ceremony & dinner for the 5 graduating residents and one graduating fellow (training after residency that some people opt to do to become more specialized; Marc is not doing this). It was Friday, May 30th at the Hillwood Country Club. Marc and I have attended this every year of his residency and could not believe that this time HE was one of the ones being honored! It's always so nice; a sit-down 5 course-meal and all the free Shirley Temples I can handle! hee hee! Each graduate is just allowed 5 guests, so that included Marc's parents, my parents, and of course Mason & me! We wish we could have had more of our friends and family there to help celebrate Marc's huge accomplishment. This was a very special night for our family, especially since it was the night that we also told our parents that Mason was going to be a big brother or sister next January. They were completely floored and had no clue what we were telling them, but finally got it. They were in so much shock, but we made them load up the cars to leave right after we told them so we could get to the graduation. So, it was a very surreal, overwhelming night for all of us. They didn't really have much time to digest that they were going to be grandparents again before it was time to move on to the next event! We wanted to go ahead and tell them while we had both sets of parents here at the same time. Once again, we were so excited to be able to share that happy time with them before the sad news came. This time, they were the only ones who knew about our pregnancy before the miscarriage. So, unfortunately we weren't able to surprise our best friends even with our pregnancy; we just had to go straight to telling them we were losing another baby. We dreaded putting everything through that again with us.
So, now that I have added a depressing note to this post, back to the happy stuff! We cannot believe that this part of the journey is almost over, and a new, very exciting adventure begins August 3rd! That will be his first day of work at Graves-Gilbert Clinic in Bowling Green, KY. Updates on our move, our new house, and what all we'll be doing in July coming soon!
My dad and Marc mingling before the dinner... didn't my dad look so cute in his tan suit? And of course Marc was the biggest stud of all the graduates. :)
Mason getting embarassed and shy when any of the doctors would try to talk to him. He definitely gets that from me, when I was little.
The chairs all lined ready to be presented... This event is actually called The Annual Chair Party... Each graduate receives a chair as a gift from Vandy to display in their future office or wherever they would like. It's engraved with their name and is soooo nice. We could have picked either a chair or rocker, and Marc picked a chair.
During the dinner... Younger residents and some of the staff got up and talked about each resident. Here they're showing a slide with pics of Marc & us, and of course it's all centered around UK sports!
Check out my hot hubby up there on the screen! Mason is getting kinda over it by this point. 
When Mason was back in his Daddy's lap, he came alive again and was so happy! 
Oh, he was in shock about something! 
Back to Grandy, she busted out the entertainment 
The waiters were all lovin' Mason and brought him out the "cadillac" of high chairs and a fruit bowl and macaroni & cheese! :) Mason was one happy boy. Well, of course he's allergic to cheese but I told them to bring it on anyway so that Mason's pregnant momma could eat it! I loved having that huge appetite again for those 2 short weeks!
The 5 graduates sit proudly in their chairs, along with their "diplomas" that they've worked so hard for! Marc's boss, Dr. Wayman, giving her thoughts on it all. Check out the pic of them in that Elf video! Have y'all seen that? It is HILARIOUS!! You can put different people's faces on the bodies of these silly elves and they do a crazy dance and you can email it out to people.
Two very proud parents 
Marc & Dr. Wayman... she's the attending who is in charge of the residents 
The 5 grads with one of their favorite docs... Look at those looks of sheer joy & RELIEF to finally be done! 
Baby boo acting shy around all the pretty women doctors
Warming up a little bit
All it takes is a Poppa Jack to come get him all stirred up! Oh wait, Marc was bored by that point
So proud of my baby!
Here we are with Dr. Lindsay who has been soooo wonderful in helping us with very much-needed items for Mason. A week before we gave birth we went to her house to collect a whole truckload of stuff... bassinet, exersaucer, bath tub, loads of toys, books, clothes, crib sheets, bibs, playmats, and lately we received a big boy carseat!! She has saved us soooo much money and we're so grateful to her. We love Jenny!
Brooke and I are SO excited for this long stretch of the journey to be over!! She and Jeffrey, along with their 2 kids and one sweet baby on the way, are packing up their house right now for their move to Indianapolis for Jeffrey to complete a one-year fellowship in pediatrics. We're sure gonna miss them! Brooke has been my person to vent to during these 4 years about all the craziness of residency... and she understands completely!
Started residency off just the 2 of us, and now here we are as 3!
Someone is the most excited to get to have more time with Daddy!! And his very OWN room that doesn't have to be shared with our guests! :)
As Marc said in his speech that night, we definitely could not have done this without the support of our wonderful families. Our parents have been his biggest cheerleaders along the way!
And I'll leave you with this one... Okay, so we gave our camera to some random person who worked in the country club to take our pic. While taking it, he was standing right in front of a door. As soon as he was about to snap the picture, this woman came barrelling out of the door and almost knocked the poor photographer man flat on his face. Here is the shot he captured at that very moment. Priceless!
Getting used to Mason's crib... He doesn't look very comfortable here, though!
Sizing each other up
Mason moving a little bit closer... I was thinking, "Aww! How sweet!"
Oh no, what's about to happen???!!!
See, Mason moved SO fast that it even blurred my camera! This happened before I could stop it! And look at Luke, he is sitting there taking it like a man!!!
And Mason even had to have his hood on like he thinks he's some gangsta or something!! What am I going to do with him!??!
And then Mason just sat back and relaxed while poor little Luke screamed his head off! His sweet little face was turning bright red, especially those little eyebrows! I was almost in tears.
I scooped Luke right up and cuddled with him until he fell asleep. The smallest little scratch popped up on his face, but it was almost gone by the time his Mommy came to get him.
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