Where do I begin?
I guess I must go a back a little and describe the events that have taken me to this date. By this point I had gone to several interviews. It has been quite the year full of emotions, hard times and overall very uncertain of the future. I never thought I would be going to match day twice but again, I never imagined I would be going to med school. Anyhow, when we were in Cedar city, Rand Colbert took my wife and I to lunch one day right before we were moving to Florida and simply said that he was so glad I had not matched into OBGYN. Rather, he felt it was an opportunity to apply to other fields. He kept saying that I should apply to dermatology and as far as he was concern I was going to be a dermatologist. For the most part I kind of went with it but I was certain it was almost impossible to match in such competitive field. Besides, I did not have the high grades the most applicants would need, no fancy research and certainly no belief that I could even be considered for an interview. I felt, however, that I did not have much to loose if I apply to the few osteopathic derm programs in the nation and see what happens. After all, there were only 9 programs in the nation and about 50 total positions nationwide. It would mean couple of hundred extra dollars for the application so I just went with it.
As my internship started I started looking at all kinds of programs and I ended up applying for close to 150 programs. I applied to Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine and Dermatology. I figured I could do anesthesia, I always thought it was boring and I really never saw myself in it but I has a good income and overall good life home balance; it felt better that a primary care field and maybe with some kind of "prestige". Then I though, "well if everything fails I can do IM and then do a fellowship'. This option seemed more likely as I felt it was easier to match into IM and well it would take me MUCH longer but perhaps I could do Cardiology or something like that I feel like I have a good income career, no primary care and get the sense of pride I was seeking. However, matching into IM would mean that this intern year would have been a waste and then my residency would become 6-7 years.
The interview season started and I got several interviews both in Anesthesiology and Internal medicine. Both were allopathic program and even a couple of them in anesthesia were advanced positions (would start as a PGY 2 in 2017, meaning I would have a year off). I had interviews in the following: Anesthesia in Philadelphia, Buffalo NY, Massachusetts (soon to become UofM program), University of Missouri Colombia. Internal Medicine in UofW Boise, University of AZ, University of Indiana, Mercy Hospital in St Louis MO, Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, one in St Joseph MI (cancelled it), University of Akron OH (cancelled it). Then I randomly I got an interview for dermatology at St John episcopal in NY. Well I went to all the above interviews, it was exhausting, expensive and kind of depressive. I would go one day to IM and I would say I love IM, then the very next day I would go to Anesthesia and say all I dream about is being an anesthesiologist. Much uncertainty was in my mind.
When I was ready to go to the dermatology interview, I spoke to Rand and asked for advised. He told me to be humble and to make sure I express gratitude. All good advise but did not realized the importance of that till later. To be honest I don't remember much about the interview, there were the regular questions although one was "what three items would you want to have if you were stranded on an island by yourself". At the end they asked why should we pick you and I remember feeling the impression to simply being grateful and thankful. So without really answering the question I just said "I am thankful for the opportunity to be here, I am humbled by the experience". Well that was it, life went on.
On December 2015 I took my level 3 examination and I remember during my lunch break I got a call from the program director from Mercy hospital (I liked the interview and I felt good about it) and she offered me a 2nd year position. Basically she would count my first year of residency. I was shocked and somewhat puzzled. Of course, I said yes and went on to finish my test. What else could I have said?? In my mind I kind of wanted to go for anesthesia but again it was a great offer. The key here was that I had to basically pull myself from the match and simply signed a contract outside of the match. Well, this experience certainly deserves and lot of explanation but basically, she sent me the contract, I received it and I stalled it for quite of while. She called, email and basically was wondering why the delay. I came up with a reasonable excuse, I asked her to include in the contract that I would be admitted as a second year IM resident and that my current year will be honored. To my and her surprise that took a long time. She had to confirm the offer with the Academy of IM and basically to her REAL surprise she realized that she could not count my current year as it was at a Osteopathic program...bummer. By this point, I am only trying to buy time to go through the Derm match, after all what that heck all they could say is "not matched", I only had one program to rank.
Just a few days prior to the Derm match the IM director called me and basically told me what she found about the regulations and that she could not longer offer me full year credit. In fact, all she could was 3 months and therefore I could not be offered an advance position. She felt bad as she was not aware of all of this prior to her original offer so she told me that I have a guaranteed position as a 1rst year resident regardless of what rank. I had great relief, for once I could go through both matches DO and MD in all fields and basically have a parachute with this IM program if I did not match at all anywhere else. I must say that through all this time, I have people telling that I should signed the contract and just move on, etc, etc. I even considered it myself and there were moments when I was about to do it.
Well February 8th came (DO match for Derm) and I was at work doing my regular thing. I was supposed to get an email of whether I matched or not. To be honest I knew I would not match so I was not worried or even excited at all. It was about 815 am when to MY BIGGGG ASTONISHMENT, I MATCHED INTO DERMATOLOGY IN NY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On my!!!!! There are not words to described how I felt. It was not short of a miracle.
All of the sudden all the other interviews in Anesthesia and IM did not matter, I guess it was all part of the plan, who knows. To my biggest surprise the program I matched into, took 3 residents per year, 2 of which were already given prior to interview season (used to be a FM-Derm program and they had already 2 spot promised) so there was only 1 position left and there were about 80 applicants. I had 1 in 80 chances or about .0125% chance. CRAZY. even more it was that in the whole nation, at least in the DO world, there were only 51 positions given this year and over 500 applicants.
So here it is, the story of my match. I can't describe in details the emotions I had and not sure if I can convey how amazing this was.
No comments:
Post a Comment