Spring Cleaning ...

Now that we have began the process of moving to Ohio in two months, I decided it was time to purge my notes and textbooks from medical school. Surprisingly, this was a difficult task for me. As much as these material reminded me of the long, stressful nights of studying, the countless hours spent agonizing over these notes had developed a strange attachment for them within me. As I flipped through page after page, I could literally see the time and effort put into memorizing the details that formed the foundation of my medical knowledge, as coffee stains and layers of underlining/highlighting riddled every page. As much as I hated the time spent studying for the past 4 years, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to study medicine and I wouldn't give it up for anything. However, I very much look forward to moving on in my training ... and trust me ... I won't look back!

As a parting gift, some people would ask me what medical school is like. Well here's a picture that represents what the first 2 years of medical school is like for us students ... I can assure you this stack of notes was read through at least 5 times, and that's not including any textbooks which I read. Med School is ridiculous!

Match Week

It all began on Monday morning with a simple email ...

The worrying about whether I had a job next year was gone, only to be replaced by the anxiety of where I matched and where we would be moving in two months. As if medical students haven't suffered enough, we were forced to wait until Friday Morning to see our fate. I truly believe being a medical student is some sort of twisted psychological experiment, with the string pullers constantly seeing just how much they can push before the students break. With that being said, let's get to the envelop opening ...

If you couldn't see by the image, I matched into pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio! This program is affiliated with Ohio State University ... correction THE Ohio State University ... apparently the "THE" is incredibly important to the people of Ohio, and it's definitely something I will have to get used to saying. This was my favorite program and city after interviews were complete, so God definitely knew what he was doing when He placed us there. Oddly enough, this was my last interview and one which I considered canceling because I was so tired of traveling and being away from my wife and infant son. Luckily for me, I felt like interviewing here was too good of an opportunity to give up, and upon returning I had nothing but great feelings towards this program. Upon opening the letter, my wife and I felt just about every emotion under the sun ... excited, scared, joyful, anxious, happy, sad, and nervous. Both of our families are in Nebraska, so leaving will most definitely be difficult, but we're excited for a new chapter of our lives in Ohio.

Here are a couple pictures of my new "home" come July 1st ...

Following the ceremony, I was able to celebrate with my good friends/classmates as the culmination of 4 years of hard work became a reality.

This last week has been crazy to say the least, and we were so blessed to be able to spend much of the weekend with our friends and family who have supported us through these last 4 years. Now, on to the hard part ... preparing to leave Nebraska and those we love, and starting my first "grown-up" job. 

Lastly, here's a picture of the person that got me through these last four years with my sanity intact. I couldn't have done it without you Kinsey, love you both so much, and can't wait for this next adventure to begin. 

The Match

As the end of the year draws near, one of the last major events that still remains for all 4th year medical students is the dreaded "Match." For many, this is the culmination of all the hard work that has been put into medical school and justifies those long days and nights studying for exams. However, for others this can be a time of tremendous stress and anxiety, as the possibility of not matching into a program, or a favorite program, becomes a reality. Unfortunately, this anxiety is becoming more of a reality for medical students across the country as a result of the changes in our health care legislation. To make a long story short, in an attempt to address the country's doctor shortage the government has increased funding of medical schools in order to produce more medical school graduates. However, legislation has also cut medicare and medicaid funding, which just so happens to fund residency programs that train medical school graduates. The ultimate result is that this country is churning out an increasing surplus of medical graduates for a plateaued number of residency positions. Below is a graph which depicts this trend before the last two years, and unfortunately the discrepancy has only gotten worse.

Before getting into the specifics of the Match, I feel like I should talk about the journey to get to this point...

Matching into a residency program starts long before the 4th year of medical school. In my specific case, I knew even before entering into medical school that I wanted to work in the field of pediatrics in some manner, however, many people enter into these last 4 years with no idea as to their field of choice. As a result, my journey was much easier than many of my classmates because I already knew where my future career was headed. Working with children has always been one of the greatest joys in my life, and in the field of medicine it was no different. When I tell people about my decision to enter into pediatrics many state the following: "I don't know how you could want to work with sick kids all day." My response to them is simply, "How could you not!" In pediatrics, it's true that the low points are extremely low, but the highs are just as amazing, if not better. Plus, kids are awesome ... That's a scientific fact! What other field of medicine allows the physician to tackle such complex medical diagnoses, followed by receiving a drawing from your patient or getting to discuss the latest Pixar movie in all its splendor. In subsequent posts I hope to share some of the wonderful stories I have gained from the last 4 years, but I'll get back to the topic of this post ...

A drawing one of my very sick renal (kidney) patients drew for me in clinic ... I was the green blob at the top of the drawing, right next to the blue blob with "barfed" written inside

Once my decision to go into pediatrics was made and I had completed my require USMLE Board exams (3x), then began the incredibly monotonous application process. I ended up applying to 30 programs in total, and got interview invitations to approximately 25, of which I only accepted 9. Nine interviews may not seem like much, but when those interview were compressed into a 6 week period after the birth of our son, it was beyond tiring. After about 20 flights, and 2 nights spent in the airport due to flight cancellations, car rentals, cabs, and hotels, I was ready to be done. After interviews, I had to sit down and rank each program compared to one another. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I really like each place I interviewed, and could see myself being trained well at any of the programs, which made the decision process more difficult. On 2/26/2014 I submitted my rank list to the NRMP Match server and all the programs also submitted their rank lists of candidates ... Now we wait. On March 21st (Match day) every graduating medical student receives an envelop containing the name of the program where they will be training for the next few years in the specialty of their choice. To say the least, I'm nervous, anxious and excited at the same time as I wait to hear where my family and I will be placed. I rest in the fact that neither myself, the programs, nor the NRMP servers dictate where I will be heading for residency ... Rather its Gods sovereign will that determines the path for my future, and wherever I'm placed will be exactly where I'm supposed to be. 

A little insight into my motivations for this blog ...

As a lead in, I want all people that are reading this to know that this is an entirely new venture for me. In no way do I consider myself a writer, in fact I'm quite the opposite. For almost 8 years I have been trained to be a scientist, implementing logic and evidence based medicine to solve complex problems. As a result, I would certainly describe myself as a "black and white" type personality, which unfortunately can make my ramblings dry and anything but a page-turning read. However, I've toyed with the idea of a blog regarding the journey through medical school and residency since it began nearly four years ago, and only now (during my fourth year) do I have the time to finally put pen to paper, or finger to keys. 

My goals for this blog are not to inspire some cathartic personal experience which changes my views on life, but rather to incorporate you into this journey my family and I have experienced the last 4 years and will continue as I start residency in 4 months. If you ask any medical student about their personal lives, a universal statement you are guaranteed to hear is, "I think one of the most difficult parts of medical school is that no one truly understands what I'm going through." It's impossible to accurately describe the intensity of medical school, and how it attempts to consume your entire life, to anyone who has not been through it personally. It's difficult to describe how during the first two years of medical school we attend lectures for 4-6 hours a day and then somehow find time to study another 6-10 hours, and still have time to maintain our sanity. It's even more difficult to describe the fear you have while caring for patients for the first time, performing procedures, being on call for the first time, performing CPR on a small child, and dealing with the death of your first patient. Yet, somehow you're expected to bury all those fears and continue learning in order to become a competent and confident physician. I can't speak for all medical students, but my faith, friends/family, and most importantly my wife (and now son) have been the support which has allowed me to make it through the last 4 years. 

Over the course of the following entries, I hope you, the reader, gain a better understanding of the successes, failures, joys, and struggles that my family and I have experienced and will face in the future. Moving forward, as I begin residency I hope to continue this as consistently as possible, and I plan to be as honest as I can in order that you may understand and share in our journey. Until then, I'll try to write about some of the stories I carry with me from the last 4 years and what these next few months look like till I start residency.