I think it is finally starting to sink in... And I am SO excited. Happy. Relieved. Thrilled to be done with applications. Secure, finally knowing what I am going to do for the next five years. Over the moon to say that I am going to be a Child Neurologist. All of it.
I am going to be a Texan and while I am still not sure what to think of that part, it does not matter because in five weeks I finish medical school and in just than two months I start residency. And that makes it ALL worth it. I am not saying that it was easy or that the hard work is over, but I am going to be a doctor and for that I am grateful, appreciative and humbled...
But for those who ever doubted me I have a few words.
Dear Dean Z,
You were my first doubter and hater. You promised me/us: the pre-med class of Freshmen, that only one out of ten would enter medical school and that we should just give up before we even took organic chemistry. You convinced many a classmate that she should enter law school, find another major or simply do anything else, yet you didn't convince me. You did however make is seem like going abroad for a semester or taking a science lab course over the summer would seal my fate of not being a competitive applicant. I am sorry I listened to you... I did not go abroad because of you.... I regret that now because it wouldn't have made a difference, I would still be here today and would have had an awesome life experience in the meanwhile. But I didn't know that then. However, today I am here as a matched medical student and all your doom and gloom didn't stop me. Sure I cried leaving the pre-med office more times than not, but I made it despite your prophecies. What you didn't know is that you cannot squelch true passion and that now matter how many times you told me I would not make it, I was not hearing your words.
Dear Biology Professor and Student Advisor,
You told me that a Child Psychiatrist was overqualified to talk to children. I didn't believe you then and I still don't believe you now. You were a horrible student counselor and I am glad I left your office and never went back.
Dear Physiology Professor,
I came to your office to discuss my grade and standing in your class. You asked me what my plan B was. I told you I had none. You didn't think this was smart and so I thought about your question and tried to come up with a plan B, but the thing is, I really didn't have the heart to do anything else and luckily I didn't have to. Sure my Plan A took a few more years to achieve than I had originally planned but I met my husband, lived in NYC and grew up a bit in the process, I have no regrets and no plan B!
Dear Child Neurology Interviewer,
You asked me how as an IMG I expected to match. And maybe you were trying to protect me or nicely say that I was not a competitive applicant... but yet you were interviewing me, so why was that? You also asked me who in my family was a physician and clearly didn't like my answer. Maybe you only want residents of physician families and groomed US Medical Student graduates but that is okay, because I don't want to be a part of such a program and that is why I ranked your program last. I guess it is lucky for both of us that I matched elsewhere. You are welcome!
Showing posts with label Child Neurology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Child Neurology. Show all posts
3.15.2013
Happy Residency Fate Day aka Match Day 2013!
I'm matched!
And if you have matched too, congratulations!
If you are looking for the SGU Match List then look no further. Of course it is a work in progress but it is being updated so keep refreshing. For those that matched things look good! Congrats on all of your hard work and the fruition of your labor. Enjoy today, you deserve it!
For those that did not and were unsuccessful in SOAP my sincere and heartfelt sympathies to you. It is not fair or right that you should finish four years of medical school and not match into residency, it angers me that SGU cannot do more to help its students and that it is expected that a certain number will not match and that this is "okay". It is not and I am sorry! Please know that I do care and realize that it could have been me... Keep the faith and fix what needs to be fixed, next year you will be successful.
As for me, it is official, we will be moving to Texas as I have matched in one of my top choices at UT Houston in Child Neurology. I am very excited and feel that this program has many strengths and will be a good fit for me! I am a little hesitant to move to TX and am not sure what I think of Houston but we are doing this. That being said, I'm accepting any and all advise on where to live, dog parks to visit, how to make the most out of Houston, etc. We may need to adjust to the humidity and hot weather but I'm sure we will manage. What can you tell me about Houston dear reader?
I'm off to celebrate but just wanted to let everyone know, in case you don't have Facebook or access to me that way. Congrats again to all my classmates and thank you for your support and encouragement.
And if you have matched too, congratulations!
If you are looking for the SGU Match List then look no further. Of course it is a work in progress but it is being updated so keep refreshing. For those that matched things look good! Congrats on all of your hard work and the fruition of your labor. Enjoy today, you deserve it!
For those that did not and were unsuccessful in SOAP my sincere and heartfelt sympathies to you. It is not fair or right that you should finish four years of medical school and not match into residency, it angers me that SGU cannot do more to help its students and that it is expected that a certain number will not match and that this is "okay". It is not and I am sorry! Please know that I do care and realize that it could have been me... Keep the faith and fix what needs to be fixed, next year you will be successful.
As for me, it is official, we will be moving to Texas as I have matched in one of my top choices at UT Houston in Child Neurology. I am very excited and feel that this program has many strengths and will be a good fit for me! I am a little hesitant to move to TX and am not sure what I think of Houston but we are doing this. That being said, I'm accepting any and all advise on where to live, dog parks to visit, how to make the most out of Houston, etc. We may need to adjust to the humidity and hot weather but I'm sure we will manage. What can you tell me about Houston dear reader?
I'm off to celebrate but just wanted to let everyone know, in case you don't have Facebook or access to me that way. Congrats again to all my classmates and thank you for your support and encouragement.
2.28.2013
Best of the NYT in article and video. Also my PSA re: MELAS because today is rare disease day!
I cannot help but share the following... After a rather disappointing day at work I needed to have my faith in humanity restored and the NYT has come to the rescue!
You have to read this article: We found our son in the subway. I always love Townies and Modern Love and this article is like the perfect mix of both. It is a story of family, a story of love and it makes me happy. Life is strange that way, it just somehow has a way of working out....
Or if you would rather watch a video than this is the one: Finding the visible in the invisible.
So amazingly cool, it will make you appreciate the awesomeness of science, I promise!
And as a little bit of a public service announcement, today is rare disease day. There are so many rare diseases and the families they are affect are great in number and ways. As you know I am going to dedicate my career to Child Neurology and there are "just a few" rare diseases in that category. I know a young man who was originally diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) but is now thought to have MELAS however the diagnosis can only be made via genetic testing which is extremely expensive and my young friend has recently turned 18 and does not have insurance.... He is looking for a research study or some way to be diagnosed or treated but he lives in Oklahoma and doesn't have the means to travel super far without some type of travel or financial assistance. I don't know what to do for him but since it is rare disease day I'm posting his story and hoping that maybe the right person will read this. If you have any ideas or know of any ongoing studies, please let me know!
That is all I've got for today. Hope your faith is restored too...
You have to read this article: We found our son in the subway. I always love Townies and Modern Love and this article is like the perfect mix of both. It is a story of family, a story of love and it makes me happy. Life is strange that way, it just somehow has a way of working out....
Or if you would rather watch a video than this is the one: Finding the visible in the invisible.
So amazingly cool, it will make you appreciate the awesomeness of science, I promise!
And as a little bit of a public service announcement, today is rare disease day. There are so many rare diseases and the families they are affect are great in number and ways. As you know I am going to dedicate my career to Child Neurology and there are "just a few" rare diseases in that category. I know a young man who was originally diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) but is now thought to have MELAS however the diagnosis can only be made via genetic testing which is extremely expensive and my young friend has recently turned 18 and does not have insurance.... He is looking for a research study or some way to be diagnosed or treated but he lives in Oklahoma and doesn't have the means to travel super far without some type of travel or financial assistance. I don't know what to do for him but since it is rare disease day I'm posting his story and hoping that maybe the right person will read this. If you have any ideas or know of any ongoing studies, please let me know!
That is all I've got for today. Hope your faith is restored too...
2.12.2013
One week and one day
Until my ROL (rank order list) is due...
This part is torture. The waiting. I went on a second look today and now I have absolutely nothing else to do but hurry up and wait! (31 days until match, but who's counting???)
I pretty much know how I am ranking programs but still that doesn't mean that I don't spend the greater part of each day trying to decide if #3 should maybe be #6 and #5 should move to #3.... Does it matter more where I live or how the adult neuro year is structured? How important is the PD? Do I want to be at an ultra-academic setting or something more service orientated? Resident run or educationally focused?
These are the questions that I am pondering again and again. #1 and #2 are set and have been for some time. #11 and #12 have no hopes of moving up. But the rest of the programs are in limbo and seem to change positions in my mind by the hour.
So that is it. I'm stuck in limbo. Kind of like how several of my patients are "stuck" in the hospital waiting for placement. All I know is that our health care system is very inefficient. Because the cost of staying in the hospital when you have no active medical issues is enormous. But SNFs/Rehab Centers do not want to accept certain insurance plans or Medicaid and thus the patients are "stuck."
I'm worried that one of my patient's is going to get pneumonia and die before she is placed. And there is no reason for this. Her nurse is mad at me because I dared write an order for her to be out of bed every day (she suffered a stroke and thus needs assistance to ambulate due to severe right sided hemiparesis). And PT/OT should be coming daily to do rehab with her but they do not have the time or resources to do so, thus she sits in bed on neutropenic precautions because she just finished chemo and I'm very worried that she won't survive this hospital admission. Which is now a week too long and looking to last much longer as per case management as she has been denied from 7 SNFs thus far.
And if that isn't enough, I have another patient that is a ward of state, also waiting for placement. She has been hospitalized for over 3 months and the last 2 months are in excess of her medical needs but she is stuck too.
Being stuck kind of reminds me of my Family Medicine Inpatient rotation at this same hospital and this post which I wrote over a year ago. I guess some things never change. Every year students wait for the match and every day patients sit in the hospital waiting for placement... We are all stuck in our own way but at least I know when my waiting will be up which is more than I can say for my patients. So for that I am grateful. I may complain but I realize how much of a privilege and honor it is to be able to wait for the match and to match and I do not take any of this lightly.... And I still have a week and a day to play with my ROL!
This part is torture. The waiting. I went on a second look today and now I have absolutely nothing else to do but hurry up and wait! (31 days until match, but who's counting???)
I pretty much know how I am ranking programs but still that doesn't mean that I don't spend the greater part of each day trying to decide if #3 should maybe be #6 and #5 should move to #3.... Does it matter more where I live or how the adult neuro year is structured? How important is the PD? Do I want to be at an ultra-academic setting or something more service orientated? Resident run or educationally focused?
These are the questions that I am pondering again and again. #1 and #2 are set and have been for some time. #11 and #12 have no hopes of moving up. But the rest of the programs are in limbo and seem to change positions in my mind by the hour.
So that is it. I'm stuck in limbo. Kind of like how several of my patients are "stuck" in the hospital waiting for placement. All I know is that our health care system is very inefficient. Because the cost of staying in the hospital when you have no active medical issues is enormous. But SNFs/Rehab Centers do not want to accept certain insurance plans or Medicaid and thus the patients are "stuck."
I'm worried that one of my patient's is going to get pneumonia and die before she is placed. And there is no reason for this. Her nurse is mad at me because I dared write an order for her to be out of bed every day (she suffered a stroke and thus needs assistance to ambulate due to severe right sided hemiparesis). And PT/OT should be coming daily to do rehab with her but they do not have the time or resources to do so, thus she sits in bed on neutropenic precautions because she just finished chemo and I'm very worried that she won't survive this hospital admission. Which is now a week too long and looking to last much longer as per case management as she has been denied from 7 SNFs thus far.
And if that isn't enough, I have another patient that is a ward of state, also waiting for placement. She has been hospitalized for over 3 months and the last 2 months are in excess of her medical needs but she is stuck too.
Being stuck kind of reminds me of my Family Medicine Inpatient rotation at this same hospital and this post which I wrote over a year ago. I guess some things never change. Every year students wait for the match and every day patients sit in the hospital waiting for placement... We are all stuck in our own way but at least I know when my waiting will be up which is more than I can say for my patients. So for that I am grateful. I may complain but I realize how much of a privilege and honor it is to be able to wait for the match and to match and I do not take any of this lightly.... And I still have a week and a day to play with my ROL!
12.12.2012
For Sophie
and Elizabeth over at a moon, worn as if it had been a shell
This virtual ornament is the idea that inspired virtual ornaments. I was at the American Epilepsy Society meeting last week and came across this ornament which I knew I had to have. I was originally going to send it to Elizabeth and Sophie but then realized that they live with epilepsy EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. and thus really don't need an ornament to remind them... but I do love me some purple and so why couldn't I have the ornament for my tree? And so I donated some money and took it home... where it now resides.
As you may know I am applying for residency in Child Neurology and a large portion of my future patients will have epilepsy. This is no cure. There are medications and diets and surgeries that sometimes work, for some patients and there there are those like Sophie who are somehow above any treatments the medical world throws their way. My heart breaks, it does. I don't know if we will ever have the ever-elusive "cure" as there are so many reasons for and varieties of epilepsy but I do know that part of my career will be interacting with the families affected. Elizabeth and other bloggers have opened my eyes to the lives that are lived beyond the walls of the hospital or medical clinic. The world of IEPs and wheelchairs and affected marriages but most of all the world of love that they (Sophie, Calvin, Max, Pearlsky) create as part of being. The compassionate siblings and more patient parents. The better world. And so to Sophie and Elizabeth I dedicate this ornament. One for my tree, one for theirs....
As you may know I am applying for residency in Child Neurology and a large portion of my future patients will have epilepsy. This is no cure. There are medications and diets and surgeries that sometimes work, for some patients and there there are those like Sophie who are somehow above any treatments the medical world throws their way. My heart breaks, it does. I don't know if we will ever have the ever-elusive "cure" as there are so many reasons for and varieties of epilepsy but I do know that part of my career will be interacting with the families affected. Elizabeth and other bloggers have opened my eyes to the lives that are lived beyond the walls of the hospital or medical clinic. The world of IEPs and wheelchairs and affected marriages but most of all the world of love that they (Sophie, Calvin, Max, Pearlsky) create as part of being. The compassionate siblings and more patient parents. The better world. And so to Sophie and Elizabeth I dedicate this ornament. One for my tree, one for theirs....
9.23.2012
better than one is two, aka my happy dance
Interviews that is! So far I've applied to 92 programs: 49 child neuro, 53 peds and have received one rejection, four thank-you-for-applying-we-will-let-you-knows' and one plus one (TWO!!!) interviews at places I would be very happy to go! One is for an over-the-moon amazing place and I feel honored to even get to interview there, the other a solid university program, both are for child neurology. I'm sure the tide will turn but I'm quite happy with my 2:1- interview:rejection ratio at the moment. Amazed, excited, surprised and very, very happy. I really didn't think I would get interviews so early or at such great places... It may be that child neuro is an open field with very few applicants or that I have an amazing letter writer or that research matters and I happen to have that, or who knows? Whatever, I'll take it. I didn't go into the application cycle very confident so this week has done wonders for my self-esteem. So here is to the two!
And in celebration of applications being in and my month of child neurology being over I am in Park City, UT with my parents enjoying a week filled with hiking, cards, kayaking, biking, swimming, hot-tubs and whatever else we decide to do. Life it good.
And in celebration of applications being in and my month of child neurology being over I am in Park City, UT with my parents enjoying a week filled with hiking, cards, kayaking, biking, swimming, hot-tubs and whatever else we decide to do. Life it good.
8.30.2012
Life Updates
I found a new great spot in the city to lounge/read and free WiFi. Color me happy!
ERAS applications are due Sept 15 so that is exciting. My list is currently at 86, not sure if it is growing or shrinking at this point. I'm applying to general Peds and Child Neuro and that's about all I have to say about that.
And speaking of child neuro, tomorrow will be the end of my first week on my child neuro rotation and I NEED TO STUDY! So far this week I have seen, Becker's Muscular Dystrophy, Global Developmental Delay, Failure to Thrive, Febrile Seizures, Plagiocephaly, GBS Meningitis, Recurrent E.coli meningitis, and some other stuff that I'm forgetting at the moment. It has been a good week. I heart peds and child neuro and clinic and babies and cannot wait until this is what I get to do with my life.
Oh, and I'm going camping this weekend. Very fun!
And my bike ride is 10 days away. You should sponsor me, see last post.
And that's my life at the moment. Life is good.
ERAS applications are due Sept 15 so that is exciting. My list is currently at 86, not sure if it is growing or shrinking at this point. I'm applying to general Peds and Child Neuro and that's about all I have to say about that.
And speaking of child neuro, tomorrow will be the end of my first week on my child neuro rotation and I NEED TO STUDY! So far this week I have seen, Becker's Muscular Dystrophy, Global Developmental Delay, Failure to Thrive, Febrile Seizures, Plagiocephaly, GBS Meningitis, Recurrent E.coli meningitis, and some other stuff that I'm forgetting at the moment. It has been a good week. I heart peds and child neuro and clinic and babies and cannot wait until this is what I get to do with my life.
Oh, and I'm going camping this weekend. Very fun!
And my bike ride is 10 days away. You should sponsor me, see last post.
And that's my life at the moment. Life is good.
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