the following week...

i'm finally [mostly] recovered, emotionally and physical, from the hell of last week's matching activities. i've gone through the denial, the anger, the bargaining, and depression, and am mostly toward acceptance of my fate. it's always nice, though, to get messages like this (scramble was on Tues 3/14):

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:03:58
Subject: Regrets about the system and our tardiness

Dear [bonzo],

I regret I did not get back to you in time on scramble day.

ERAS ~ melted down on us and turned out to be the least good method of gathering information.

You would have been an excellent candidate for us.

Our loss.

I wish you well.

We thank you for applying to Vanderbilt.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXX, MD

Program Director

Vanderbilt

[note: "ERAS" is the "Electronic Residency Application Service," the software used to apply to residency initially. Some residency programs utilized this also during the scramble.]

it doesn't help that Vanderbilt was pretty much my top choice of the "plan B" list, and to see that i could have had a spot there. other offers included Loyola (Chicago) and Wayne State University (Detroit) - but i'm very happy with my choice of Rush.

still never heard from Iowa - and looks like they are still unfilled. figures. now just waiting to hear officially from Rush - to get my contract, and to find out how much i'll be making, etc. need to contact some current residents and get their opinions on places to live....

back in the world of the living ... sorta

yeah.

settled - i'm going with option - was it #2? (hehe - no comments on "number 2" please....) i have booked myself into a PGY1 (post-graduate year 1) general surgery internship at Rush in Chicago. will be interesting to be in the big city. but at least (or just another form of torture?!?) i will be close to family.

next big steps -

• get lady-love back into the country
• find some digs (house/apt to rent for 1 year)
• figure out how to schmooze my way into an oto residency while maintaining credit for the year of internship i'll be in the middle of....

oh, and i guess it would be a good idea to study enough to jump into this program running...!!

in the meantime, "baby steps":

• get HxPxDx grades all tucked in - which of course means more grading, etc.
• ACE my psych shelf exam - that will be at the near-end of april
• go shopping for the first time in nearly a month - my dinner for the past three days has been peanut butter & jelly on a bagel
• throw out all my dirty dishes and invest in styrofoam
• i guess it would be a good idea to do my taxes at some point

and maybe the most daunting task - go through all the SHIT in my apartment and throw stuff out to make it easier to move at the end of may.

yeah.
life IS fun.

peace out,
e

scramblishous

So here's the status / options at this point:

#1 Choice:
1 program left with an open ENT slot - Iowa. (Research track, 7 year program). Dunno when they will decide on that - hopefully early tomorrow, but I am not optimistic.

#2 Choice:
Hooking up with a prelim / intern year general surgery program at a location that happens to have an ENT program as well - so can work toward transitioning into that program for next year. Top candidates now (depending on open slots on Wednesday morning) include Rush in Chicago and Vanderbilt in Nashville. Some other places too - may need to resort to DISTANT places like Pennsylvania, NY, or California. IF they have slots open still by then!!!

#3 Option:
Hook up with any prelim general surgery year I can scramble into, and worry about ENT with next year's applications. I may be accepted as a 2nd year resident, or I may have to repeat an intern year. Dunno what decides that yet.

#4 (last) option:
Plan to delay entering residency for another year. There are myriad things I could be doing in the "downtime" - not gonna bother listing them now. But they include a few things that will make matching next year a piece of cake. Theoretically.

So we'll see what we see. Ugh.

In better news, VISA stuff is "moving along" and the paperwork will be in Malaysia within 1 week. One more / less thing to worry about.....

Life is fun, no?
e

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Woke up this morning to see Bonzo's txt msg on my phone: gotta scramble.

Oh, bugger.

Lemmie translate: All those interviews he attended were part of this elaborate process that ultimately matched 4th year medical students with hospitals/schools where they would do their internships.

I don't know what the (students graduating :internship places) ratio is, but I suppose there will always be cases of some end up not getting "matched" despite going through the elaborate process. So they need to "scramble" for any places that still have open spaces, if any.

Bugger, bugger, bugger.

(If you have the image of Hugh Grant banging his head against a tent pole while muttering those words, from the movie that's the title of this blog post, well, you're on the same track as me :p )

In this case, it seems there are 5 spots open for dunno how many applicants: 1 in west, 1 in midwest / central, and 3 in south (inlcuding puerto rico). Actual locations not available until noon tomorrow. And all he can so is "get on the phone, and wheel-and-deal / send out application materials".

Did I say bugger yet?

Will find out March 16th whether he managed to get a scrambled place, or if we need to go to plan B. or C. or D. or E. :D

Stay tuned.

Bugger.

(NOTE: reposted this back to "u.s. time", i.e. 12hrs earlier than "actual" Malaysian time)