All done!!!

Today I finished the last day of a four year journey called medical school!!! Wrapping my head around that thought right now is impossible. To think that I will no longer be paying for education, will no longer have to enter a hospital room and sheepishly introduce myself as a student doctor and be immediately discounted, and will no longer have to go to a doctor to get antibiotics for my sick family members is so surreal. I am so excited to actually shoulder responsibility at the hospital, to do work that will actually matter. I guess I could go on and on about the things I am excited about, like moving to St. Louis, buying our first house, having two months of vacation, and getting rid of that short white coat!!! But I'll stop there before I get too carried away. In retrospect the journey didn't seem so long. I started out what seems like years ago as a newly wed, first year medical student, wondering if I had what it takes to be a doctor. I pulled my 21 year old wife away from her family and dropped her in a tiny town in the country where neither one of us had friends or acquaintances. I guess we didn't know quite what to expect. So much has happened. My thoughts seem so disjointed and random as I reflect on the whole medical school experience. It was really hard, at times. At times, it was really incredible. You would have to do it to really understand it. I started by failing my first test in medical school, thinking that I was going to be taking my new wife and moving back home a failure. I don't think I've ever felt so discouraged and hopeless. Through prayer and encouragement from my sweet wife I was blessed to continue on in medical school. I was blessed with some incredible, really intelligent friends that helped me to realize some of my potential and end up in the top of the class. I feel so blessed to have made it this far.

For those of you who haven't heard, I found two things out on March 18, 2010. The first was that I had a beautiful new son named McKay. The second had to do with my occupational future. Since Tana has already told you everything about McKay, I will not elaborate. I will tell you about the residency match.

When I started applying to anesthesiology programs I was really nervous that I wasn't competitive enough to get a spot. I had great grades and class standing, but my board scores were very average and unimpressive. I applied to MD and DO programs, but ultimately decided that I would be better served in a long standing university institution from the MD world. I interviewed at Henry Ford Hospital, The University of Florida, The University of Missouri at Kansas City, The University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and Saint Louis University. People say that if you interview at 7 spots you have it made. I interviewed at five. I hoped it was enough. You spend all of this time trying to decide what specialty to pursue, and there is a huge chance you might not match into it. Well, I matched into it!! Again, I feel so incredibly blessed. I found out shortly after McKay was born. During the whole birthing process I had forgotten that the match results were waiting for me until my friend, Jared Chase, called me up to ask where I'd matched. I didn't know!! I asked him to look it up for me and He said that I was headed to Saint Louis University, in Missouri. I couldn't have been happier. That is where I'd originally wanted to go. March 18, 2010 was a great day for me and for my family. I am so grateful.