I didn't have the money or time to pull together a real graduation announcement.
This was my compromise...
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Graduation Announcement
I didn't have the money or time to pull together a real graduation announcement.
This was my compromise...
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Alamo city or bust!
So, the results are in and I'm thrilled! I'll be spending the next 4 years in beautiful south Texas (San Antonio)!
It's a great program and a great city, and I couldn't be happier!
I've spent an embarrasing amount of time in the last few days browsing pictures and forums about San Antonio and here are just a few of the gems I've found.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Long Overdue! (3/17/2010)
Family & Friends,
So, time flies and a year has passed since my last substantive entry…I knew this would be a danger when I started this blog. Despite my best intentions I wax and wane in my journal keeping – always have. Since this blog doubles as my journal, I guess this is just me back at my old tricks!
I will inevitably miss important details pertaining to the last year, but here is a brief blow-by-blow of my last 12 months:
Our story left our “hero” (note the quotation marks) just finishing his first month of ambulatory medicine. Despite an awkward experience or two, my big take-home lesson from that month was that I enjoy outpatient medicine where your patients come and go home again after the visit (vs. inpatient, where the patients are all admitted to the hospital and stay for…well…who knows how long! Could be a day, could be until death do us part!)
I then completed a month of inpatient medicine, 2 months of surgery, and then 2 months of pediatrics polished off my 3rd year of medical school. Here is what I learned from these rotations
• I like procedures, I even like surgery, but I do NOT want to be a surgeon! Why? Because I don’t hate myself (present/future surgeons, don’t be mad at me. That was a joke…sort of…) Really, it is because I don’t want that kind of lifestyle until I’m 60+. Also, I learned that while I like procedures, I do not like procedures/surgeries that take more than 1-2 hours. I get board and my legs hurt. Also, I’m pretty sure Robert Louis Stevenson had a surgeon in mind when he wrote “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” because surgeons become different people when they get in the OR…seriously!
• Kids are cute and fun…but not when they are sick! And what is worse/more-cranky than a sick kid? Answer: a sick kid’s parent! I defiantly learned that being a pediatrician is for other people (bless their insane hearts!)
Around this time, I started to prepare my residency application. Here are a few highlights of what this entails:
• Writing a CV (which is a type of resume that we use in medicine. CV stands for “Curriculum Vitae” which is Latin for “make the shadow-box you built in 3rd grade sound like the cure for cancer, a clean-burning eco-friendly fuel that will replace oil, and an everybody-wins solution to the health care debate”
• Getting 150 letters of recommendation (really just 5…but it felt like 150). Here is how that process usually goes:
Eric: “Would you be willing to write me a letter of recommendation about what a wonderful student and human I am? Please make sure you include how well you know me and how you deeply wish that in another life you would have had a son as brilliant, motivated and hard-working as me.”
Attending: “Who are you and why are you in my way?”
• Writing a personal statement. This is a tricky one. Somehow you are expected to write about how incredible/amazing/talented/hard-working/good-looking/charming/well-rounded/environmentally-friendly/service-oriented you are. Also, you are expected to convey why you distain the thought of being compensated (with money) for being a doctor and why you would rather get paid in “warm fuzzy feelings” than receive a paycheck. (I exaggerate…but only a little!)
Shortly after all of my application preparation, I was fortunate to be able to drive to Utah and begin a 4 month stint at home with family! Here is how each of the 4 months broke down
• Month #1: I got to study about 8-9 hours a day and then take an 8 hour board exam. I think I have expressed my feelings about board exams in the past, and I will have many opportunities to do so in the future, so I will limit myself to saying that I’m glad it is done and that I passed just fine.
• Month #2: Infectious Disease rotation at the University of Utah hospital. Overall, this was a good rotation and I learned a lot. Also, I had my first few residency interviews (more on these later).
• Month #3: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation rotation at the University of Utah hospital. I LOVED it! Admittedly, this is my chosen field, and I may be a bit biased, but really, it was great! At the end of the month I spent a wonderful Christmas at home with my family!
• Month #4: A “vacation” month where I stacked most of my residency interviews. Really this month was spent traveling and living the life of a “road-warrior”….(if I never have to see an airport or rental car again, so help me)…on the bright side though, I did get to spend a few quality days in Virginia with Lance seeing that beautiful state and a few days in New York seeing all that is Manhattan island. At the end of the month I drove back to Wisconsin in time to start another inpatient medicine month.
Let me state right here that invariably my time in Utah went faster than I wanted or expected it to. I never get to see all the people I want to, and those I do see, I never get to see enough. Those of you I did see, I hope I’ll be seeing more of you soon (more on this later). Those of you I didn’t see, I also hope to see you sooner than later (time will tell)!
Let me take a quick tangent right here about residency interviews and what that experience was like. Imagine this: you receive an email saying something like “Congratulations, we at the University of [fill in the blank] would like to extend an offer to interview at our program”. You call them up, set a date and then hang up the phone. Suddenly you realize that you do not live in that state and that before you can interview there, you will need to get there. You jump on Travelocity.com and book some flights (the cheapest flights, of course, arrive at 1:30am and the airport is 25 miles away from the hospital). Then you realize that you do not know anyone who lives in that city, nor do you know the how to use the public transportation even if it was running at 1:30am. You get on Enterprise.com and rent a car (the cheapest car is a neon blue VW Bug that makes you feel like you are driving inside of a blueberry) and then go to Motel.com and rent the cheapest room you can find (it is at the Bates Motel and you can still see blood stains on the wall from the last unfortunate medical student who stayed there). After arriving at the city of question at 1:30am (did I mention the 7 hour layover in Harrisburg?) you and your trusty GPS navigate your way to the motel (there is, of course a blizzard going on outside), crash for a few hours and then navigate your way to the hospital where you begin the interviews.
Most interviewers are pretty cool and do not make the experience too uncomfortable, but every so often an interviewer just want to nail you to the wall with questions like “how do you think we should solve the health care crisis?” (there is NO RIGHT ANSWER to this question and no matter what you say, you are WRONG!)
After the interview you try to drive back to the airport but the battery in your GPS is dead and you forgot the charging cord. You take the “scenic route” through cities with names like “Cottonville” and “Manitowoc” until you finally must use the force (Star Wars was on the motel TV last night) to find you way back!
Finally you arrive back home just in time to wash your clothes, choose a new tie and drive to the airport again for the next interview. After a few of these little trips, another thought strikes you: I’m a poor student and don’t have any money to be doing all of this flying/car/hotels thing! You call your bank and ask for another loan….
****
After moving back to Wisconsin and reconnecting with my amazing peeps out here (love you guys!) I’ve done 2 months of inpatient medicine (again, not my favorite). Which brings me to today…the day before match day!
Match day is a time-honored tradition in medicine. Here is a simple way of visualizing it:
• I make a list of all the programs I interviewed at (#1 on my list is my favorite program, #2 was my second favorite program, etc.)
• The programs make a list of all the applicants they interviewed (#1 was their favorite interviewee, #2 is their second favorite, etc.)
• Both lists get submitted to the mysterious NRMP (National Residency Match Program) which I’m convinced is an ultra-secret organization kind of like the illuminati.
• On a given day in March, a computer somewhere in the depths of NRMP’s secret headquarters runs an algorithm trying to match both lists up as high as possible on both sides. I like to picture an evil computer kind of like the one from “2001: A Space Odyssey” (“Open the pod bay doors, HAL”)
• A few days after the evil computer has done its work, all the 4th year medical students in the country gather at their respective schools and get handed an envelope with the results of the match inside. Prior to this point we are not allowed to know the results of the match. It is kind of like receiving a mission call, except for instead of receiving a call to serve a 2 year religious mission, it is a 4 year residency position…
That brings me to tomorrow, which is match day! Yikes! Tomorrow sometime between 11am and 1pm I will find out where I will be living for the next 4 years! My first choice is to return to Utah (why I hope to be seeing all of you Utah peeps again soon). Programs in San Antonio, Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, Boise, and Richmond are also possibilities. Really, every program I interviewed at was good and I’ll be happy to end up at any of them, but a part of me is really hoping for Utah…
Anyway, that is probably enough out of me. Best wishes to all of you!
-Eric
So, time flies and a year has passed since my last substantive entry…I knew this would be a danger when I started this blog. Despite my best intentions I wax and wane in my journal keeping – always have. Since this blog doubles as my journal, I guess this is just me back at my old tricks!
I will inevitably miss important details pertaining to the last year, but here is a brief blow-by-blow of my last 12 months:
Our story left our “hero” (note the quotation marks) just finishing his first month of ambulatory medicine. Despite an awkward experience or two, my big take-home lesson from that month was that I enjoy outpatient medicine where your patients come and go home again after the visit (vs. inpatient, where the patients are all admitted to the hospital and stay for…well…who knows how long! Could be a day, could be until death do us part!)
I then completed a month of inpatient medicine, 2 months of surgery, and then 2 months of pediatrics polished off my 3rd year of medical school. Here is what I learned from these rotations
• I like procedures, I even like surgery, but I do NOT want to be a surgeon! Why? Because I don’t hate myself (present/future surgeons, don’t be mad at me. That was a joke…sort of…) Really, it is because I don’t want that kind of lifestyle until I’m 60+. Also, I learned that while I like procedures, I do not like procedures/surgeries that take more than 1-2 hours. I get board and my legs hurt. Also, I’m pretty sure Robert Louis Stevenson had a surgeon in mind when he wrote “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” because surgeons become different people when they get in the OR…seriously!
• Kids are cute and fun…but not when they are sick! And what is worse/more-cranky than a sick kid? Answer: a sick kid’s parent! I defiantly learned that being a pediatrician is for other people (bless their insane hearts!)
Around this time, I started to prepare my residency application. Here are a few highlights of what this entails:
• Writing a CV (which is a type of resume that we use in medicine. CV stands for “Curriculum Vitae” which is Latin for “make the shadow-box you built in 3rd grade sound like the cure for cancer, a clean-burning eco-friendly fuel that will replace oil, and an everybody-wins solution to the health care debate”
• Getting 150 letters of recommendation (really just 5…but it felt like 150). Here is how that process usually goes:
Eric: “Would you be willing to write me a letter of recommendation about what a wonderful student and human I am? Please make sure you include how well you know me and how you deeply wish that in another life you would have had a son as brilliant, motivated and hard-working as me.”
Attending: “Who are you and why are you in my way?”
• Writing a personal statement. This is a tricky one. Somehow you are expected to write about how incredible/amazing/talented/hard-working/good-looking/charming/well-rounded/environmentally-friendly/service-oriented you are. Also, you are expected to convey why you distain the thought of being compensated (with money) for being a doctor and why you would rather get paid in “warm fuzzy feelings” than receive a paycheck. (I exaggerate…but only a little!)
Shortly after all of my application preparation, I was fortunate to be able to drive to Utah and begin a 4 month stint at home with family! Here is how each of the 4 months broke down
• Month #1: I got to study about 8-9 hours a day and then take an 8 hour board exam. I think I have expressed my feelings about board exams in the past, and I will have many opportunities to do so in the future, so I will limit myself to saying that I’m glad it is done and that I passed just fine.
• Month #2: Infectious Disease rotation at the University of Utah hospital. Overall, this was a good rotation and I learned a lot. Also, I had my first few residency interviews (more on these later).
• Month #3: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation rotation at the University of Utah hospital. I LOVED it! Admittedly, this is my chosen field, and I may be a bit biased, but really, it was great! At the end of the month I spent a wonderful Christmas at home with my family!
• Month #4: A “vacation” month where I stacked most of my residency interviews. Really this month was spent traveling and living the life of a “road-warrior”….(if I never have to see an airport or rental car again, so help me)…on the bright side though, I did get to spend a few quality days in Virginia with Lance seeing that beautiful state and a few days in New York seeing all that is Manhattan island. At the end of the month I drove back to Wisconsin in time to start another inpatient medicine month.
Let me state right here that invariably my time in Utah went faster than I wanted or expected it to. I never get to see all the people I want to, and those I do see, I never get to see enough. Those of you I did see, I hope I’ll be seeing more of you soon (more on this later). Those of you I didn’t see, I also hope to see you sooner than later (time will tell)!
Let me take a quick tangent right here about residency interviews and what that experience was like. Imagine this: you receive an email saying something like “Congratulations, we at the University of [fill in the blank] would like to extend an offer to interview at our program”. You call them up, set a date and then hang up the phone. Suddenly you realize that you do not live in that state and that before you can interview there, you will need to get there. You jump on Travelocity.com and book some flights (the cheapest flights, of course, arrive at 1:30am and the airport is 25 miles away from the hospital). Then you realize that you do not know anyone who lives in that city, nor do you know the how to use the public transportation even if it was running at 1:30am. You get on Enterprise.com and rent a car (the cheapest car is a neon blue VW Bug that makes you feel like you are driving inside of a blueberry) and then go to Motel.com and rent the cheapest room you can find (it is at the Bates Motel and you can still see blood stains on the wall from the last unfortunate medical student who stayed there). After arriving at the city of question at 1:30am (did I mention the 7 hour layover in Harrisburg?) you and your trusty GPS navigate your way to the motel (there is, of course a blizzard going on outside), crash for a few hours and then navigate your way to the hospital where you begin the interviews.
Most interviewers are pretty cool and do not make the experience too uncomfortable, but every so often an interviewer just want to nail you to the wall with questions like “how do you think we should solve the health care crisis?” (there is NO RIGHT ANSWER to this question and no matter what you say, you are WRONG!)
After the interview you try to drive back to the airport but the battery in your GPS is dead and you forgot the charging cord. You take the “scenic route” through cities with names like “Cottonville” and “Manitowoc” until you finally must use the force (Star Wars was on the motel TV last night) to find you way back!
Finally you arrive back home just in time to wash your clothes, choose a new tie and drive to the airport again for the next interview. After a few of these little trips, another thought strikes you: I’m a poor student and don’t have any money to be doing all of this flying/car/hotels thing! You call your bank and ask for another loan….
****
After moving back to Wisconsin and reconnecting with my amazing peeps out here (love you guys!) I’ve done 2 months of inpatient medicine (again, not my favorite). Which brings me to today…the day before match day!
Match day is a time-honored tradition in medicine. Here is a simple way of visualizing it:
• I make a list of all the programs I interviewed at (#1 on my list is my favorite program, #2 was my second favorite program, etc.)
• The programs make a list of all the applicants they interviewed (#1 was their favorite interviewee, #2 is their second favorite, etc.)
• Both lists get submitted to the mysterious NRMP (National Residency Match Program) which I’m convinced is an ultra-secret organization kind of like the illuminati.
• On a given day in March, a computer somewhere in the depths of NRMP’s secret headquarters runs an algorithm trying to match both lists up as high as possible on both sides. I like to picture an evil computer kind of like the one from “2001: A Space Odyssey” (“Open the pod bay doors, HAL”)
• A few days after the evil computer has done its work, all the 4th year medical students in the country gather at their respective schools and get handed an envelope with the results of the match inside. Prior to this point we are not allowed to know the results of the match. It is kind of like receiving a mission call, except for instead of receiving a call to serve a 2 year religious mission, it is a 4 year residency position…
That brings me to tomorrow, which is match day! Yikes! Tomorrow sometime between 11am and 1pm I will find out where I will be living for the next 4 years! My first choice is to return to Utah (why I hope to be seeing all of you Utah peeps again soon). Programs in San Antonio, Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, Boise, and Richmond are also possibilities. Really, every program I interviewed at was good and I’ll be happy to end up at any of them, but a part of me is really hoping for Utah…
Anyway, that is probably enough out of me. Best wishes to all of you!
-Eric
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