It's been a while since I've updated this blog. Meaning, it's been 80 million forevers, a
baby girl, and a move home to Alabama.That's right, we got the heck out of New Orleans and
transferred residencies back home. That new school I worked for? It was great...until I got
transferred into another school that was completely different six weeks into teaching and I
found out I was pregnant like right before school started and the situation that I was
transferred into was not a good one.
Deep breath...okay. This post in not about me surviving that year in NOLA. I should
mention though that everything worked out and I got a job that I currently have had for two
years (really? two years!) in an amazing system in Alabama. Seriously...it's the best. I
couldn't ask for more. So let's get down to the nitty gritty.
First let's talk about what it's like to get in at the very beginning. Unfortunately, I can't
speak to what things are like when they are interviewing and trying to get into medical
medical schools (and I'm thankful that I don't have that experience every single day), but I
talk to you about what it's like starting in their second year. The first thing that comes to my
mind is this test called "Step 1". It's basically the devil in computer form. It also determines
their entire medical future. Seriously. A score that isn't in the range for your intended
specialty changes your whole future. If you don't have a good score on this test, you can
basically kiss any competitive residency goodbye. Because of this, Elijah (my husband)
went into a black hole studying for the test, as does any other second year medical student
(otherwise known as MS2). He came out okay, but some specialities were eliminated for him
because of his score.
If you are lucky enough to make it through second year, third year is a
beating with an entire year of rotations to help them decide what specialty they should
choose for residency. Seriously so thankful he didn't pick surgery. He was gone from dawn
to dusk and then some during that rotation. He was exhausted too. Any of you who are
married to surgeons, hats off to you. He actually like Ob/GYN rotation a ton, and then did
an elective in pathology where he eventually matched.
4th year brings some peace...except for the fact that you have to travel basically the
entire year to residency interviews that you might or might not enjoy. We interviewed all
over the place. California, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina. Then you submit a
rank list which is supposed to be a "mutual selection process" but let's be honest...if they
don't want you, you ain't going there. I mean, you do have some power too, (you can rank
programs you don't like lower than others but every medical school in the country will tell
you that it's better to match than not to no matter if it's not a program you like) but they
have the power in the situation because they have their choice of candidates and you are at
the mercy of who invites you to interview. All of this culminates into Match Day in March.
That turned out to be a dark day for us. More about that later. You open an envelope and
find out where you matched that day. Most places do it one of two ways...1) You open the
envelope in front of an audience and announce or 2) you all get envelopes and everyone
opens them together. It's excruciating to wait.
Thanks for stopping by the blog for this post. Next week, I'll cover residency and our
match story. It's kind of emotional.
If you are a doctor wife at any stage, I want to encourage you to find the Facebook Group
that is for doctor wives in your city. So many cities have them! It's a way to get involved in
the community and make friends.
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