Adrian has been super busy the last few months. He has been away on rotations and flying all around the country for residency interviews.
He applied for residency on September 16th. He applied to about 50 different programs around the country for a MD residency in OB/GYN. The very next day he got first invite for an interview in El Paso, Tx. In total he got invited to 8 interviews which he accepted all the invites and interviewed at all the places. He's been told that having about 13 interviews will guarantee him a spot somewhere so we came up just a bit shy of his goal.
In the course of 2.5 months he interviewed in Charleston, West Virginia; El Paso, Tx; University of Utah in Salt Lake; Toledo, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Kansas City, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland and lastly Hartford, Connecticut. He can only get accepted into a program in which he interviewed. Which means we will be going to one of these sites for 4 years. On January 15th we will submit our ranking of these 8 programs. Each program in return will rank all their applicants including Adrian. On March 16th we will get an email stating whether we matched to a program or not. Then on March 20th we will get another email stating which program we matched to. Adrian's stress never ends. There is always a possibility of not matching to any program at all. That will be really bad. Adrain would have to frantically call programs that have an open spot and beg to get in. He might even have to switch to something besides OB/GYN. We are not hoping for that.
In September Adrian flew to Philadelphia for some testing, which he passed. He spent the next couple days with his buddy who was also in Philly for testing, touring the city. Here's some pictures of their trip. They also drove to New York City for a day.
He started a month long rotation in Charleston, WV on Sept. 29th. He stayed in a dorm with other roommates that were also med students. He had to commute by bus to the hospital for 40 minutes one way each day. The medical staff he was working with told him he was commuting in the absolute worst part of the city with the worst crimes/drug activity. I made sure he checked in with me every time he came and went from his dorm. It was hard for him be away from family so long. We in turn also missed him. I at least have my family here for someone to talk to and hang out with.
One funny story from WV is that Adrian lost his iPhone. He knew he left it in the public bathroom next to the sink when he washed his hands. When he realized this and went back for it, it was gone. He had the gps activated on his phone and used an app to track his phone. He, along with all the medical staff at the nurses station, was able to track his phone down to the exact location. They watched as his phone went to one mall for ten minutes. Then it traveled to another mall and stopped for ten minutes. During this time he was getting email notifications on his iPad that his phone had been attempted to be deactivated twice. So, whoever had his phone was at the malls trying to deactivate his phone so they could probably sell it. Adrian has a passcode that automatically comes up on his phone every time it turns off so anyone other than us would not be able to access the phone. Then he watched as his phone travelled 30 miles out of town and stopped at someones house. One of the nurses looked at the address where the phone was and she knew the exact patient who had been discharged that day who lived at that location. Adrian did not know what else to to do do he called 911 and reported the whole story to the police. They gave him the run around for two hours and in the end told him they could not help him. So Adrian called the local police office of the town where his phone was and told the local sheriff his story. The sheriff asked for Adrian's phone number so he could possible call it and he said he would go check it out. The sheriff knocked on this lady's door and told her that he had reason to suspect a stolen phone was at her house. She of course denied it and so the sheriff stated that if he called Adrian's phone number and a phone rang in her house he was arresting her. Then he told her that if she turned over phone right then before he dialed the phone number he would take the phone and leave with no other questions asked. She then stated that her child had come home with a phone earlier that day (most likely a lie) and she turned over Adrain's phone to him. Adrian then drove the 30 miles to that town the next day and got his phone. Talk about a crazy story!!
After a month in WV, Adrian came home for 1.5 days and then started a rotation in Salt Lake at the University of Utah for a month. He stayed with my Aunt Denise and Uncle Paul Pratt. He said over and over that although he was away from family, he felt so much better being with a family instead of in a dorm by himself.
He was traveling all throughout this month to his interviews. While he was in Buffalo NY, he went to see Niagra Falls, from the U.S. side.
After a month at the University of Utah, Adrian did a month in St. George at an orthopedic surgery office. He was gone so much of this month for interviews.
We had a free Delta companion certificate that expired at the end of the year so I accompanied Adrian to Hartford Connecticut. We woke up at 2 am and drove to Vegas for our flight. We finally landed in Hartford at 3 pm and had to be at a dinner by 5pm. We had read online that Hartford is a really dangerous city and to especially avoid the north part of the city. The dinner was for the people interviewing the following day. It was at an OB doc's house and some current residents and OB doctors were there to get to know. The dinner was fun. It was very family friendly, there were kids there and Adrian said it was the only resident dinner he went to where there kids. The city had a very New England look to it and it was fun to see all the houses. Adrian went to his interviews the following morning while I was a the hotel. I slept in, watched tv (which I never do) and exercised in the fitness center. After the interviews we drove around the city and ate, went to a movie and walked around the outdoor mall. We flew home the following afternoon and got to Vegas at midnight. We drove all the way home and watched a meteor shower the whole way. We did get really drowsy and every place Adrain chose to pull over to sleep I made him leave because it was too secluded and I was afraid we would get robbed and killed and nobody would even know because nobody was around. So, we ended up driving the whole way home half asleep only stopping for gas once.
My mom watched the boys while we were gone. Unfortunately, while we were away Levi got sick and vomited and had diarrhea for a few days. My mom said it was tough, but they survived. A couple days later I came down with the same sickness. It went around most of my family. Oddly, there were some in each family who were exposed to the sickness, but never caught it.
We're so glad interviews are done, but now Adrian's stressing ( and I'm excited) to find out where we will be moving to this summer.
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