Becoming a Doctor...

On March 18th, 2010, I got to open a very important letter. It said, "Congratulations, you have matched at Arkansas Children's Hospital!!!"

What a whirlwind day! For such an important day I really didn't take many pictures...crazy, I know! Here is my family on Match Day though!

A realty company sponsored a huge party for our class at West End. It started at 10:00 AM. We couldn't open envelopes until 11:00. At 11 they started randomly drawing peoples names out of a bowl, and as your name was called you went up on stage and opened your envelope! We were so excited (and relieved) to know that I get to stay here at Children's Hospital. Residency officially starts July 1st! (But we get to warm up a little with orientation the week before).

Catching up...

This month I've been on my Peds Primary Care rotation. I spent one week in the ER at ACH, one week in the nursery at UAMS, a week in the Developmental Clinic and Adolescent Clinic, and this week I'll be in the GPC (General Peds Clinic). It's been a lot of fun. I was really glad to get to work in the ER because it can be a confusing place to be so I was glad I got the chance to see how it works.

On February 24th my rank list is due. I've already made it and submitted it, but it doesn't really count until 2/24. That's the same day the programs submit their rank lists. Then a big magical computer "matches" everyone who's applying to any residency in the country this year. Crazy! Hope there aren't any technical difficulties! Between Feb. 24th and March 15th everyone sits around biting their nails, hoping we've matched. Then on the 15th you find out IF you matched. IF you matched (and hopefully everyone does) you hang tight until March 18th. Then on March 18th, my entire medical school class gathers at West End in LR around lunchtime. Everyone's name is placed into a hat. When your name is drawn from the hat, you go up on the stage and open the envelope that says where you've matched! And hopefully it is your first choice! Isn't it wild? This whole process has resembled rush so much it's unbelievable. You just get a 4 month break between bid day and pledge year. ;)

More updates to come. Sorry I've been a slacker!

Interview Trail Part I...

Wow. 4 states in 3 days! We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Oklahoma City and Kansas City for my first two pediatric residency interviews. We left Monday morning for Oklahoma c

City. Lucky for us, most pediatric programs pay for our lodging which is awesome! So we got to OKC and found our hotel, the Sheraton downtown, right near Bricktown. We had some time so we walked around Bricktown. It is really neat! There is even a little riverwalk area! Very cool. Here are some pics from Bricktown:

Later that night we were invited to dinner with some of the residents at an OU physician's house. It was an interesting evening. There are many stories to tell, but it would take forever, so I will move on to my favorite part of Monday night...we got to see Meredith and Nathan!!! Yea!!! So exciting! It was great to visit with both of them! They drove us around Nichols Hills where they live, and also took us to see Chesapeake, where Nathan works. What an amazing place! It was all decorated for Christmas, and the entire campus looked like THIS:

Yea for friends! So glad to see you Meredith! Miss you!

I interviewed Tuesday in OKC, then we hopped in the car and drove to Kansas City! On the way into town, we stopped to eat some authentic KC BBQ at Oklahoma Joes, a famous BBQ joint in a gas station! It was awesome. Then we headed downtown to find our hotel, the Westin Crown Center. AMAZING. We had a corner room with a balcony (too bad it was 29 degrees). This is the Christmas tree at the hotel!

While I interviewed on Wednesday, Jordan took a little trip to Lawrence, KS, home of the Jayhawks, his favorite college BB team! Here a few pics from his trip!

The campus. He said it reminded him a lot of Fayetteville.

When we left Kansas City, we headed home but took a short detour through Tulsa to eat dinner with our friends Stephen and Mary. So good to see them! Sad I don't have a picture to share, but my camera battery died early!

Now the low-down on the actual interviews...

OU Children's (OKC): The dinner the evening before the interview really set the tone of weirdness for the interview. The program seems to be on the way up, but not nearly as good as ACH. They had an awesome new 10-story clinic building connected to the hospital, which was great. I didn't feel like I would fit in very well with the residents there.

Children's Mercy (KC): We missed the dinner the night before. Breakfast the morning of the interview was in the cafeteria at the hospital, and I have to say that it was the coolest cafeteria ever! It was set up like a diner with all the bright neon lights and red retro chairs! Very fun! The facilities seemed very nice. I think the program itself is very similar to ACH. They do less Heme/Onc in the first year, which is a bit of a negative to me because I like Heme/Onc. They just finished expanding their ER to 75 beds, which is huge. (Could be positive or negative, depending on how you look at it! More patients for great exposure to various problems, but more work and craziness when you are working in the ER!)

Overall I have to say that I thought Children's Mercy in Kansas City is very similar to ACH. It was great to have something to compare it to!

We are off to Louisville next!

Application "in the mail"...

Today I was very lucky and got one more day off of work! To make the day somewhat productive and not a total waste, I finished everything I could for my application and went ahead and submitted it! I think I almost had a heart attack when I was pressing "submit"...It is very nerve-wracking! There are some parts of the application that you can go back and modify, but some that you cannot change after you submit. I am still waiting on some LOR (letters of recommendation) so will have to add those later. Here is the list of places I have applied to so far. I can still add some if I want.

UAMS (AR Children's Hospital)
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Emory University (Atlanta)
Medical College of Georgia (Augusta)
University of Louisville
Duke
University of Oklahoma Health Science Center Program (OK City)
Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston)
Vanderbilt (Nashville)
UT Southwester (Dallas)
University of Missouri at Kansas City

We will have to wait and see where I get interviews from now!

School Update...

I PASSED STEP 2!!! At least the first part! I got my score for Step 2 CK back in mid August, and I was very happy with it. We traveled to HotLanta last weekend for the second part of Step 2, the clinical skills part. It was interesting, and I am glad it is over! This is the test that is taken in a "clinical setting" where we have 12 patients to see, and we have to "diagnose" them and tell them what we want to do next. The "patients" are really actors. The best part about going to take this test was that I got to the Flannagans! It was so good to see Terri and Chuck and so WONDERFUL to finally get to meet Knox! Here are some photos:

Currently I am working on my application for residency. I just finished writing my personal statement, and I'll probably submit my application by the end of this week. The nice thing about the application is that even after you submit, you can continue to add things to it such as letters of recommendation, which can take a while to come in. Once I submit it, I'll be sure to post the list of places where I've applied.

I know, I am a slacker...

So sorry! I know it is time for an update! There are so many things to blog about, so I'll try to give you a rundown and then post some pics later!

I started my Peds AI (acting internship) on August 2nd. It is really fun, and very helpful in letting me know a little bit what intern year will be like next year. I'm working with the Hematology Oncology (Team 5) team at ACH. There is one upper level resident (a 2nd year) and there are two interns plus me. Right now we have twelve patients on our service, and each of us "interns" have 4 patients. I go in each morning at 6:30 and get report on my 4 patients from the person who was on call overnight. Then I go to the floor and examine my patients, check their vitals, talk to their nurses, and write a progress note on them. We round with the attending at 9 AM each day. When we round we talk about things going on with the patients and work on our plans for them. Right now I have two sickle cell patients in for pain crisis, and two kids in for chemotherapy. After rounds we go write orders on the patients and then work on getting people discharged that need to go home. If there is an admission, one of the interns is asked to go do the history and physical on the new patient (usually in the ER or from Heme/Onc clinic).

Also during this month I am taking call "q4" (every 4th night) just like an intern. Luckily at ACH (and many children's hospitals) they have a night float system. This means that Sunday night-Thursday night, if you are on call, it is only until 8:00 PM, and then the person who is on nights that month takes over. If your call falls on Friday or Saturday night, you take overnight call. I had my first overnight call on Saturday night. It was an experience. What a strange feeling to be sleeping (yes I got a little) and then have a pager wake you up and have to run down to the ER to do an admission. I talked to some of the residents about it and they said it is not something you really get used to. The call went well. I did one admission for a skin infection (cellulitis) and one for sickle cell pain crisis.

That's the rundown on school. Craziness!

In other news...

-The first weekend of August we headed to the "Party on the Pottawattamie" with several friends. It was a blast, and my good friend Huck is now engaged! Congrats you guys!

-On Sunday after morning rounds we headed up to Greers Ferry for some fun at the lake, since I was off on Monday too. Nana and G rented a lake house and we got some good skiing in and had a great time. (Thanks Nana and G for getting the house and skiing us around the lake...loved it!).

-Jordan and I got our Razorback season tickets today! I am so pumped!!! Also, it looks like my next couple of rotations do not require me to work on the weekends, so we should make it to all the games! I can't wait!

-My good friend Terri's son Knox turned one month old on Monday. He is so precious and I love seeing all the great pics of him!

-Step 2 CS is August 27th.

-I've started working on my residency application. I hate that kind of stuff, but it's a necessary evil!

Sorry for the long update but it's been awhile. I'll post some pics of these recent happenings soon!

Finished...for now!

3 years of medical school...

4 weeks of dedicated study time...

Review book 3 times through...

2000 review questions...

One brand new notebook...

One new package of fine-point sharpies...

Countless diet cokes...

And a little chocolate too...

All for one eight hour, 368 question test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so glad to be done with my Step 2 exam!

This week I really get to relax! Heading to the lake tomorrow, and who knows what else I'll do this week. One thing I won't be doing is studying! And then we are off to Kansas City this weekend. Yea!!! So excited!!!

Have a great week! And if you know any recent law school grads, wish them luck...many are taking the bar this week! Good luck Mere and Nathan!

They measured my head...

for my graduation cap yesterday! We had registration yesterday for the last year of medical school, and in addition to the financial aid station, tuberculosis skin test station, and CPR certification station, there was a graduation station! They measured our heads for cap sizes and took down our names exactly as we want them on our diplomas! How exciting! I've known my schedule for next year for awhile, but here is a quick run-down...it is glorious!

July: Step 2 CK (clinical knowledge) study time. I'm taking an online class for credit while I study for my test, which is July 26th. Right now I am studying every day as much as I can! (although I will admit that today I was mildly distracted by the MJ memorial--I thought it was great, he really was a legend, and many of my favorite artists performed!)

August: Acting Internship in Pediatrics. I will work with an inpatient team at ACH as more of a "team member" than "student". I'll have a little more responsibility than when I rotated through Children's as an M3. Also on August 27th I'll take the second part of Step 2 (CS-clinical skills) in Atlanta.

September: Allergy and Immunology at Children's. This was recommended to me by my advisor, apparently the Allergy and Immunology folks are good people to know if you want to be a resident at ACH!

October: required rotation in Orthopedics, Urology, Anesthesia, and ENT. One week of each.

November: Infectious Disease at ACH. Very useful rotation, will cover all kinds of good topics on an inpatient team. Infectious Disease docs are consulted for weird and hard to manage infections.

December and January: OFF!!! That's right, many glorious days of sleeping in and being lazy with no tests to study for! Also during this time we'll be traveling a lot as I go to different hospitals for interviews. I'm really excited about being off the whole month before Christmas too!

February: Primary care month at ACH. I think it is one week of general peds clinic, one week of ER, and two weeks of subspecialty clinics (like asthma, cardiology, etc.)

March: OFF again!!! And again nothing to study for. Also, Match Day is March 18th--this is the day when all M4's find out where they are heading for residency!

April: 10th block course. Our whole class comes back together for a wrap-up course of med school, and a crash course on actually being doctors.

In order to have so many months off, I am taking two longitudinal courses (they meet once or twice a month) that I am very excited about. One is a Pediatric Pharmacology/Toxicology course that will be very helpful in deciding what medicines to use for common conditions. The other I am SO PUMPED about: I'm teaming up with two other friends to be leaders of a small group for an M1 course called Introduction to Clinical Medicine, where we'll be teaching the new med students how to do history and physicals! It should be really fun!

And graduation is May 16th I think! It's that weekend anyway! Another great thing about fourth year besides getting to pick your own schedule and having lots of time off is that every course is Pass/Fail! Hallelujah!!!

Our floors are officially finished in the kitchen! Jordan finished the trim last night. They are wonderful and every time I look at them I smile! Made all the difference!

Looking forward to the end of this week, for the much anticipated arrival of BABY FLANNAGAN!!!!!!!