One year to go for the Match

The MSIV medical students from around the country received the results of the Match last week. Actually the military, married and osteopathic students had earlier matches, but by now everyone should know where they are going come June.

That means the countdown for my class has begun. As usual I'm having a hard time studying for my Surgery shelf test on Friday because my tunnel vision is focused on residency programs. I have my EM draft spreadsheet, but need to research the programs so I can rank them. Even though I'm not decided on Emergency Medicine (EM) I have one audition rotation scheduled in September at an Osteopathic program. Now I need to schedule another EM rotation at an East Coast allopathic program. Along with EM at Maricopa County in Phoenix, that will give me a well-rounded CV with a good assortment of Letters of Recommendation (LORs).

As for the rotation, it's going very well. I hung out with one of the radiologists yesterday afternoon, and while I love the money and lifestyle, I couldn't do it. They fly through imaging consults, dictations and studies in the "pit" (e.g. dungeon) with too few patient encounters for procedures in between. Dr. Greco called me in late for an acute appendicitis. It was a great case of a week long ruptured appendix. He let me cut, suture and break-up some of the nasty pus pockets. She had a lot of co-morbidities but she should do just fine after a week of ventilation, antibiotics and open abdominal wound packing. I love surgery. It's just too bad it's such a sacrifice lifestyle-wise. I might even overlook my somewhat advanced age if it wasn't an all consuming profession. 5am until 6pm on normal days with overnight call once or twice a week is just too much.

I went home over the weekend. The family and I went to Body Worlds 3 on Saturday and had a great time. Colton got bored after an hour and a half of my detailed explanations on the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the cadaveric displays, but Connor pretended to be interested for another hour or so. Colton summed it up by saying; "being a surgeon would be pretty cool." While there I ran into a couple AZCOM fourth years. They had a big post-Match party Friday and most students were very happy. Twelve had to scramble for residencies, but it sounded like many of them didn't list enough choices and "blackholed" themselves.

We then enjoyed a 96 degree March afternoon in Phoenix and went to dinner at some friends' house. We had Tucker and his family over on Sunday for a relaxing day of barbequing and chatting.

I drove back to Show Low on Monday taking the long route through Globe and was again amazed by the beautiful scenery. Until you see Sedona and the eastern mountain ranges (Superstition, Mongollan, White) you have no idea how beautiful a state this is. Phoenix is really one of the ugliest places in this state.

Finally, I officially changed my last rotation of this year from rural family here in Show Low to research with Dr. Reed, the RadOnc I shadowed in second year. He's doing some research with the help of one of my classmates and mentioned could use mine too. It will be close to home, an easy schedule (convenient for Step 2 Boards studying) and give me a chance to ask Dr. Kresl if he's ever going to publish the case study I did with a fourth year classmate on Gamma Knife therapy. The only downside is that I have to go back to campus for didactics every other Tuesday. Oh well...