Residency Process

So I thought I write today about the residency process of becoming a doctor since Zach is going through that now. This will be more or less tailored to what our plans are for the next year or two. The whole process begins officially in September of the year before you match. There is one consolidated website where you submit your application and then pick the schools you want to recieve it and they download it at their leisure. Zach applied to 55 Neurosur programs all over the country and 15 General Surgery programs as a back up. After submission of the application, then you sit around and wait for emails from the program saying that they want to interview you or saying "thanks but no thanks." The "no" emails are all the same "thank you for your interest in our program but due to the high volume of qualified candidates we cannot offer you an interview." blah! Anyway....once the interview requests come then you have to coordinate them with your schedule. The program usually offers 2 or 3 options for dates. Anywhere between 10-15 interviews is really good. Once all the interviewing is done (usually around January) then you rank your top hospitals based on the programs you liked, the area, things like that. And the programs rank their applicants. Zach will rank according to the area, the programs he liked and also rank according to which hospitals would allow for me to do my electives there next year. After all the ranking is done, a big complicated computer system jumbles everything up and "matches" applicants to students based on the numbers. On the 3rd Monday of March you get an email telling you if you matched or not and then on that Thursday you get an email saying where you matched.

Fingers crossed tightly, Zach matches into a Neurosurgery program in March and he will move there in May. I have to do Peds and OB/Gyn in NY next summer so I'll join him whereever he is next August and finish off my electives then apply to programs in the area that he is in. We won't be couples matching but hopefully I'll get into the same program that he is in because we have heard that programs take into consideration couples. Meaning, I would have an advantage in the interview process at the hospital where Zach is practicing since we are together. Since I have no idea what speciality I want to go into....I'll have to figure that out by next year at this time!

Not sure if this cleared anything up or not...but I know people have asked me questions about the process and in particular what Zach and my plans were.

On another note...only 3 more days of Internal Medicine!!!

Last Long Call!!

Tonight I had my last long call and I actually got off at 9pm...not too bad considering most nights for long call I was at the hospital until 11 or so. But I do have to be back tomorrow morning at 6am so I'm not looking forward to that :( I am the worst at getting up early and I'm not sure it will get any easier....I'm gonna miss the nights in the ER for long call though. Perhaps I'll be interested in ER? I really like the hustle and bustle down there but I think I'm gonna need to work at a shock trauma ER where there is lots going on all the time!

I'm headed up to Vermont this weekend to visit with the family that I nannied for 2 years ago. I'm really looking forward to it and I know the kids will have grown up so much! Jonas is 4 now and Anna is 6!!

For now I'm off to bed though....good night!

recovering...

I'm sad about last nights UGA game....31-0 at halftime was hard to swallow. But I am proud of the way they fought back and at least made it respectable. I'm also proud of Zach...I think he has somewhat converted into a Dawg fan. He was angry right along with me last night and we celebrated the highlights together in the 2nd half by high-fiving each other! For those of you who don't know...Zach is from Utah and I think he always thought I was a little crazy in my love for Georgia. But I think now he understands and is possibly even feeling some of the "love" with me :)

On another note, I am enjoying my lazy Sunday watching the NFL. I took Zach to the airport this morning so he could fly to Raleigh, NC to spend a week with a neurosurgeron at Duke. He is very excited about the experience and glad to be back in the hospital after a month of studying for Step 2.

Jumping In

So I finally decided to try this blog thing....I've been thinking about it for a while and finally convinced myself that I can be dedicated to it and actually post a few blogs every now and then. I probably should have started it a few years back when I began this crazy journey of medical school. Speaking of school....I only have 1 more week left of my Internal Medicine rotation and I'm excited about being done. I have learned a ton and it has been a really good rotation but I'm ready to move on to the next rotation which just happens to be Psych. But before I start that in November I'm going to Australia to see Kendra for 2 weeks! I can't wait to see the country and lay on the beach everyday! Get ready Kenna!!!!

Zach is going through the whole residency/match process....he has decided to try for Neurosurgery and has filled out all the applications and submitted everything and now is the horrible process of waiting for interview invitations from programs. He has gotten 2 requests from the University of Rochester and the University of Louisville so we're both pretty excited and hope that there are more to come! I personally would rather be in KY instead of upstate NY.....especially in the winter! I'll keep everyone updated on the process.....

But now I must go back to watching college Gameday on ESPN!! It's in Athens and I would give anything to be there to watch the game tonight! Go DAWGS!!!!!