DO or MD?

I wasn't sure whether I should write about my decision to apply for MD and DO programs.  My concern was that people would misunderstand and that maybe it could come back and bite me later.  But, well, these are the things that I thought about to make a personal decision and I don't intend to slander anyone, so here goes.

I applied for both MD and DO schools.  Initially, I wasn't planning to apply for DO programs, but the majority of my college friends are currently attending DO schools and seem to be doing alright/having fun.  I figured, why the hell not...it doesn't hurt anything but my wallet.  I made most of my college friends at a student-run clinic, so we have fairly similar ideals/experiences with patient care.

During the app process, I was also working at a pain management clinic and met a variety of elderly patients who struggled with chronic pain of the musculoskeletal variety.  Some of them relied on meds, but the majority of patients I worked with eschewed meds in favor of trying other methods like physical therapy, using topical pain relief creams, and participating in exercise workshops that I ran.  It seemed like a lot of people would observe more improvement in their mobility and a decrease in their pain levels if they just tried these three methods (or at least tried them first before using prescription pain meds).  Working with older patients was occasionally frustrating because they would show up to the clinic with a ziploc-bag full of various meds from various doctors.  There wasn't a lot of oversight, and most of the time the patients weren't really sure what most of them were for, beyond the standard maintenance meds for high blood pressure or cholesterol.  I wanted to be that kind of doctor who could maintain the big picture of a patient's well-being.  The DO philosophy matched my ideal, which is always a good thing, so I applied.

As an aside, I think my secondaries were a lot better by the time I go to my DO apps.  I had gotten much better at explaining why a particular school was a good fit for me.  Up until that point, my essays focused a lot on why I liked particular aspects of the school, but I wasn't great at explaining how all these contributed to make a specific school the only place for me.

I really liked two of the DO programs I visited during my interview season.  The faculty were great, I liked the curriculum, and the student body seemed cool.  The schools also had an emphasis on community health, which is something that I was interested in exploring further.  The Deans were down to earth too.  I interviewed and was accepted into my first choice DO school before I interviewed for an MD program.  I was fairly receptive to attending the DO school.

So why, if I was open to the prospect of a DO degree, did I ultimately choose to attend an MD program?

I wanted to be in a city and the program I will be attending is located in a city.  I had reservations about the DO rotations in 3rd and 4th year, as well.  I wanted to be at a major hospital, and the school I will be attending gives me the opportunity to be exposed to patients at a county hospital and large private hospitals.  The DO schools I looked at tended to form affiliations with smaller hospitals and community clinics, which probably more accurately reflects what it's like to be a doctor, but being at a big city hospital seemed more exciting to me.  Growing up as a city girl was probably a big influence.  Some DO schools have you pick a regional campus for your 3rd/4th year rotations.  I had mixed feelings about that.  On one hand, moving always sucks.  In college, I moved from one end of my apartment complex to the middle, and it still sucked.  I would also probably leave my med school friends.  While we can keep in touch, it just won't be the same. On the other hand, going to a new environment is exciting and challenging.

Another thing that I wasn't too excited about is that, among my DO-school friends, a lot of them were planning to take the USMLE and the COMLEX, which are national exams required of MD and DO students, respectively.  My friends plan to take the USMLE in order to apply for MD residencies and I would probably do the same.  It seemed like a pain to take two exams, even if the act of studying for the exam is a relatively small span of life as a med student/doctor.  Supposedly there will be a move to combine the licensing requirements for MD and DO students, but I'm not too well-informed of that and nobody I talked to knew how that would affect students.

There's also the part where I fell in love with the school.  The students and faculty were very enthusiastic and it's easy to get caught up in and feed off that energy.

I still maintain that DO programs are good and legit programs.  I've had a DO as my eye doctor for a while and she's so awesome that I wish she was my PCP instead.  In the end, I just picked the program that was the best fit for me and what I wanted.  I'm thankful that I was fortunate enough to have options, because it's always good to have options.

Accepted - First Choice!!

Received my acceptance letter via e-mail today for my first choice medical school.

I read my e-mail twice before turning around and yelling it to my coworkers. Then texted all my friends. I'm fortunate to have been one of those people to have been offered a choice in schools to attend. I'm trying to be objective and fairly evaluate both schools, but I think my mind has been made up on what I want. I'm lucky to be offered a spot and not a waitlist position. A part of me is waiting for my brain to de-fog and for the words 'we are pleased to offer you a position at this school' to turn into 'sorry next time pal kthxbye.'

I informed the ex to let him know and thanked him for his help through the process. It's a little saddening to know that I wasn't able to share the moment with him like I used to do.

I e-mailed my letter-of-recommendation writers to tell them the good news (and update some of them, because I've been out of touch). One of my letter writers was really happy, because the school was one of his favorites before he ultimately decided to attend Tulane.

I also really, really have to complete my financial aid application now.

Another part of me is really relieved I don't have to apply for another cycle. This process is very expensive.

It's kind of funny because I was having anxiety dreams this morning about getting rejection letters in my e-mail. Last week was around the time that the schools I interviewed at would notify us, so I was pretty mopey all weekend. The gym saved me. I'm glad to know that all my undergrad and post-undergrad work paid off. Eight years is a long time, and I've only reached one milestone in my goal.

Now I get a little bit of respite before I work even harder. I still feel like I should be bouncing off the walls with joy...or celebrating in some fashion. Honestly, I'm just very relieved. And very tired.

A Late Interview Season

I admit it, I lost the motivation to blog for a while.
Just wanted to get my secondaries in (did that).
Then I had to complete my D.O. secondaries (did that too).
The end of last year was just a blur. I have no memory of *anything.*

"Turned down from an interview-invite? When did I apply here???"

I had given up on getting interviews. I was in a really bad zone of negativity and kept away from most people beyond superficial online correspondence with friends via Facebook. And then one interview invite drifted in at the end of December for late February. Then another in January, and now all of a sudden I have 5 scheduled this month.

A really long, long-distance-relationship came to an end at the beginning of the year. At that time, I kept thinking I should be upset about it, and I was to a certain extent, but then I realized that I had already given up on making things work. And then my interview invites started to flow in, and I had other things to worry about, like travel arrangements and preparing for interviews. That's probably one reason why things would have never worked out between us. The fact that I can push aside personal issues to focus on the task at hand without thinking about it too much. Another reason is perhaps that, outside of professional settings, I'm not good at compromising.

I had my first interview this past Monday at a DO school. I left with a great impression of the school and the environment. I left with the sense that I did okay, despite this being my first interview, despite it being a group interview. I was able to think on my feet, not ramble too much, and stick to my points, even if I didn't respond to follow-up questions as smoothly or concisely as I would have wanted. They really grilled me about the DO vs. MD route, even though I wasn't the only one who had not shadowed a DO. It wasn't a scenario I was unprepared for, but some of the wording of their questions threw me off and might have made me second guess myself, so next time I'll have to keep that in mind.

Afterwards, they kept me back to ask me two questions, which was scary. They asked why I decided to retake the MCAT, despite having a good score (Honestly, I never considered the percentile measure..only that I wanted to do better), and presented a scenario. Possibly to gauge my leadership ability in responding to a conflict. It wasn't tough per se. I remembered to pause and think about my answer, but I did leave thinking, "Dammit! I should have said that toooooo."

I also discovered one of my interviewers, the anatomy instructor, had observed an bypass surgery with the same cardiothoracic surgeon that I had observed. I was really excited to talk about that, because it was such an awesome thing to watch, and found out that my interviewer was actually able to scrub in. I'm glad I wasn't the only person to have felt giddy and excited during (and even after) that experience.

I'm happy to have made it this far, whatever happens. Trying not to think about my hemorrhaging wallet too much. Whatever happens, I've booked a 5-day vacation for myself over 4th of July weekend to visit Austin, Texas and it will be an opportunity to celebrate or get over the whole thing.

Thoughts

Reading Michelle Au's post on Doctorate Nurse Practitioners and other "physician extenders" got me thinking about how I introduced the Physician's Assistant as "Doctor Impatience" instead of "This is Impatience, the Physician's Assistant."  Everyone in the office refers to her as "doctor," for simplicity's sake or because the PA requested it, I don't know.  I did the same thing to the patients, namely because I have no idea how to introduce her without launching into a tirade.  There isn't a title for them in Chinese since DNPs and PA-Cs do not exist in Asia (as far as I know).  After thinking about it, I do like the idea of transparency.  I don't think it is as simple as "Well if they wanted to be a doctor, they should have gone to medical school*,"  but I do think people should know and understand who the heck is managing their health.  But in all honesty, it would be up to Dr. Impatience to decide how she would like to be addressed.  

*This was an opinion uttered by a few commenters.  I might have agreed a few years ago, when I was younger and stupider...But now I see "physician extenders" as professionals spawned by an increasing need for health professionals in places that do not necessarily need/cannot afford an MD/DO.  

Today I got to watch the physical therapist lead an exercise class.  It was freaking cute watching little old ladies swing their arms and feet (carefully) doing exercises.  

Being a Patient is No Fun Pt.1

I miss the simpler days when I only ever had to go to a pediatrician when I was sick. All I had to do was sit on the bed, let him examine my throat and ears and I was done and out the door with a nifty sticker.

I went to the ER today for a dislocated shoulder...As someone who is interested in becoming a doctor, I thought I should blog about it, even if it's only a reminder to my future self that hey, being a patient for any reason can be scary and frustrating. Before I explain the whole ER trip, here's some back-story on my recurring injury:

Due to being on the wrestling team, I tore my left labrum which I vaguely recall my doctor referring to as a Bankart Lesion. The first doctor I went to assumed I was just loose-jointed and needed time to grow out of it. We sought a second opinion. Dr. M informed us that I had a torn labrum and he recommended surgery.

My parents weren't too thrilled. They grew up with the mentality that surgery isn't always a solution and harbored the hope that I could live with the injury. They kept hoping (wrongly) that the tear would heal itself, or if we pursued alternative methods, we could strengthen the muscles and ligaments around the shoulder joint. I grew up in a very bicultural home, so I learned about the merits of Eastern Medicine, but I didn't think anything could be done for my shoulder short of surgery.

We argued about it constantly. When I turned 18, I chose not to pursue the surgery option behind their back. It seemed wrong to go behind my parents like that and I wanted their support (or my own job and my own insurance plan).

Finally, years years later, I found Dr. A who is an orthopedic surgeon and specializes in shoulders. I'm not sure why my parents finally made the turn around..it may have been that they finally realized my shoulder wasn't getting any better. In the years between meeting Dr. M and Dr. A, my shoulder would dislocated at the worst times, always when I'm doing something ridiculous and have my guard down: like taking off my jacket/closing the door with my left hand/ sleeping and unconsciously moving into a bad position.

I'm scheduled for surgery on Sept 7 at long last. Dr. A uses some type of plastic anchors instead of stainless steel (which my parents disliked). She's been very kind to explain AND diagram for me and my parents how the procedure would go.

Unfortunately, my shoulder couldn't wait another month and it dislocated itself today...ironically as I was taking my coat off. My next post on this topic will be about my adventures in and out of the ER :(

Why Yesterday Was Awesome

Soooo I have to admit, I have been pretty lazy when it comes to posting regularly, and then I literally became too busy/too exhausted after "work" to really want to do much more than catch up on my favorite blogs at night.  But Dr. J has been at me to write down my experiences and thoughts because I'll probably need to remember what I did, why and how when it comes to medical school interviews.  

So, this is why my day yesterday was AWESOME. 

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

I finally worked up the courage to ask Dr J if I could shadow her during one of her shifts at the hospital.  After a number of phone calls, everything was set up.  


I got to see some pretty ridonkulously crayzee awesome stuff...I watched an OBGYN doctor remove a lesion from a female patient and then remove an ectopic pregnancy from another patient.  Then I watched a super cool but uber high-tech cardiac electrophysiology surgery to treat a patient with atrial fibrillation.  


The highlight of my day was watching a friendly and talkative cardiovascular surgeon perform a coronary artery bypass graft from behind the anesthesiologist's curtain.  Getting to watch a highly-invasive open-heart surgery is such an incredible and rare sight to see up-close, even for those within the medical profession.  Many surgeons do not want an unnecessary distraction.  And even if observers are allowed to come in and watch, they are often pushed up against the farthest reaches of the room and largely ignored.  But this experience was different:  the surgeon was nice enough to invite me to the fore-front, behind the safety of the anesthesiologist's curtain, to watch him suture each graft to the heart.  And because 5'1 people can't see much, they even gave me a freakin' stool.  A STOOL TO STAND ON!! SWOON.  The surgeon, the assisting surgeon, and the anesthesiologist were ridiculously friendly.  They went out of their way to give me an up-close view and took time and effort to tell me about their life's work, even though I didn't want to interrupt and ask questions.  It was very intimidating to walk into a huge O.R. filled with four busy doctors, three nurses and a huge cardiopulmonary bypass machine with a LOT of blood.  Looking back, I wish I could have gone back in during the second surgery to stare at the bypass machine more.  Watching the heart slowly start beating again is a priceless and beautiful experience that made me giddy and lightheaded with excitement.  


I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see so many different types of procedures and to be treated with respect and consideration as if they were mentoring me.  All of the nurses and surgeons I talked to were very friendly, accommodating to my unspoken curiosity and willing to teach me something.  I suspect I picked the right day to drop by the O.R: lots of relatively simple out-patient cases.


The recent Mommy Wars debates have made me think how fortunate I am to never have met a doctor like Dr. Sibert, even though I would never have asked her, "Is Anesthesiology a good field for women?"  A relatively young cardiac electrophysiology surgeon I talked to yesterday told me that for many young students, picking a career or a medical specialty is very much a leap of faith or a crap shoot that is based on one's impression of people he or she interacted with over a short interval of time.  Unfortunately, this means that someone might have rejected the perfect medical specialty because he/she thought the resident or attending physician was a jerk.  Luckily, I met many very fun and friendly anesthesiologists before reading Dr. Sibert's article...The moral for me is to keep my mind open at all times towards opportunity, regardless of who I come to respect or dislike in the future.  


I hope that as I move on and up, I get to meet good doctors who care about their patients and their students, and that they keep in mind that small acts of kindness to wide-eyed pre-meds and med students can go a long way in ways they cannot even imagine.