I have debated about whether or not to tell this story on my blog because it is kind of personal and not just about me, but my husband keeps bugging me to blog (love you dear) so here goes.
I think that medical school must be really hard. I know it is hard for the families of the students, but I know it is really hard for the students too. I am really glad that I am not in medical school. :)
Knowing that medical school is hard, I think that cramming medical school into three years instead of four must be really really hard. At least it has been for us. I am pretty sure I have mentioned this on my blog before and everyone who reads my blog probably already knows this, but David is in a 3 year medical school program for those interested in going into Primary Care. The school that David is attending just created this program a few years ago. In fact, David is going to be in their first graduating class. It is exciting to know that we are getting done a whole year early and saving ourselves a whole year of school loans, but there have been a few bumps in the road. The biggest bump came just over a month ago. David failed his step 2 boards. It was actually a huge shock. He had been doing fine on all of the practice tests and shelf exams, so we were very surprised when he failed the test by just 2 points (probably one question shy of passing as far as we know how to calculate). Now this would have only been a small hiccup if he had taken the test when he did,
and been in a 4 year program. He would have just studied and taken it again. The real problem came because of when he had to take the test because he is in a three year program he wouldn't have a passing grade for "match day." Match Day is when find out where you are going to residency. You rank all of the places you want to go, the places you have interviewed at rank you in the order that they want you, and the computer goes in and gives everyone there top choice that "matches" between the two.
Because David wants to be a family doctor he only interviewed in 4 places. Family medicine isn't very competitive because as far a pay goes, they are pretty low on the totem pole. Most people want to specialize in something that will make them a lot of money (most students don't come out of medical school with less than 200K in debt and you have to pay it off some how). Anyway, we only applied at 4 residencies because David wants to do very specific Family Care and knew that these programs would give him that training. But when we found out that he had failed his step 2 boards we started contacting those 4 residencies and talking to them about our situation.
We heard back from our 2nd choice residency first.
They absolutely would not rank us.
It didn't matter that David had to take the test a full 6-12 months before anyone else. It didn't matter that he only failed it by two points. It didn't matter that he was going to retake it as soon as he could (which wasn't until a week after the match). It didn't matter that he is a great guy that any residency would be lucky to have. He didn't have a passing score before match and so they would not rank him.
Two days later we heard from our 3rd choice residency. They would not rank us.
We only had two choices left. Our 4th choice was very close to home (just a 45 minute drive) and David did a lot of his rotations there. He really liked the hospital, but it isn't as big as we would have liked. Because David worked there so often we were pretty sure they would still rank us. We just weren't sure David could really get the training he needed there. Our biggest fear was that even they would not rank us and that no one would want us because even to "scramble" (to try and get a spot at a residency that didn't fill all of its openings) you need to have passing board scores. Knowing that our last choice would still rank us was something.
Our top choice was a very competitive residency (as far as family medicine goes) and we were pretty sure that they would give us the same answer that the other two residencies had given us. That it was just too much of a risk to rank someone who hadn't passed their boards yet. But from the moment I heard that David had failed his test I started praying. I don't think I stopped praying until we heard back from them. I prayed that they could be our miracle. I prayed that they would be able to see David's worth (because he is amazing and will be an amazing doctor) and that their hearts would be softened to our situation. And Heavenly Father answered our prayers. They ranked us. The doctor that David was in contact with told him that he wasn't ranked as high as he had been before they found out about his test score, but I knew in my heart that we had been given a miracle. They ranked us!
Then came the grueling weeks of waiting to find out where we matched to. I knew we would get our first choice. I knew it in my heart, but in my head it was sometimes hard to be so sure. Satan knows our weaknesses and just how to make us doubt and to bring fear into our lives. I think those may have been the longest 3 weeks of our lives! Waiting and wondering if we would have anywhere to go after David graduated from Medical School.
And then the day was upon us. David was pretty sure we were going to find out we had gotten our 4th choice. I knew it would be our 1st! And it was! We got our first choice! As soon as I found out, I had to get on my knees and thank my Heavenly Father. I know that everything in my life, all of the blessings that I have, come from my wise, loving, and all knowing Heavenly Father. He knows why we had to go through this trial. And someday we may know why. But for now it is enough to know that He loves us and He hears our prayers. Always.
