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Today the residency application season began for spots starting in July 2011.  FUN TIMES AGAIN!  I applied to a lot of family medicine programs and will decide if I need to apply to more next week.  I am confident this time will be a lot better, and I look forward to practicing medicine once again in the new year.

We arrived from our Africa trip yesterday.  It was one of the best vacations I have ever taken, and in the coming weeks I will be uploading pictures and video from the trip.  Some of the highlights include our animal safari in the wilderness of South Africa, bungee jumping on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and cage diving with sharks near Capetown.

I didn’t have access to a computer during my trip, so I have a lot of errands to attend to now.  It’s nice to be back, but I am certain I will be visiting South Africa again in the near future.

I just finished packing all my things.  We are set to fly out tomorrow morning to South Africa. This is going to be a really cool trip.  My sister, dad, bro-in-law, uncle, and the friends coming along are also just as excited.  See you on the other side of the world!

I just finished my harrowing 2 day board exam. Each day lasted 8 hours.  Needless to say it was exhausting, but I am glad I did it and more happy that I got a full night’s sleep last night without worries or stress.  Now, I look forward to getting to the 1000 e-mails and facebook friend requests I have ignored over the past month. And oh yeah, I am going to South Africa next week.

Leaving tomorrow to attend my favorite cousin’s wedding!  Be back in the States in 10 days.

Well, it’s been over six weeks since my four year period of hard work and sacrifice was erased in a matter of 3 days, and today I begin to start anew.  I have been studying and jogging since I have been back at Dad’s house over these past six weeks, but today I will begin to seriously study for my step 3 exam and of course keep up health.  Just this morning I lifted weights and managed to run over six miles in the pouring rain.  Now I will start doing a ton of practice questions for my step 3 exam.

I’ll be sure to take some time and do some fun things as well.  In less than two weeks my little niece turns one year old which is exciting. And this weekend I am going to Jacksonville, FL for the TPC golf tournament.  I am not that much into golf, but it’ll be interesting to see golfers like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. Or what will probably happen is I’ll just end up drinking a lot of beer with my dad, brother in law, and uncle on the greens. Hopefully, the weather will comply.

This upcoming week is the final week of my neurology rotation.  It will be my last week as a medical student.  The goal of medical school is to procure a residency spot in the United States and move forward in residency training starting in July of every year.  To all of my colleagues who will start a residency this year, I wish my most heartfelt congratulations, and may you have much success.  Unfortunately, I won’t be joining any of you this year.

This past week I found out I didn’t match into a residency program.  I tried to scramble for a spot, but it was to no avail.  I am looking for open positions in case there are people who matched but want to drop out, but these efforts will for the most part be futile.  Becoming a physician is extremely difficult.  It is the most challenging endeavor I have ever taken on in my entire life.  I have sacrificed a lot, worked extremely hard, have put aside family and relationships at times, and unfortunately it appears to have been for nothing at this point.

I wish I hadn’t have rushed into my USMLE Step 2 CK and CS exams while I was juggling my clinical rotations and scheduling my fourth year rotations in New York and Georgia.  My poor performance on my Step 2 hurt me in the long run. I simply tried to do too many things all at once instead of focusing on each individual thing one has to do for applying for residency.  In retrospect I should have taken my time and just apply for next year.

For my non-medical school colleagues I will try to put this in understandable terms: Imagine a nuclear bomb exploding and in the end there is nothing but rubble and absolute silence.  That’s pretty much what happened to my medical career this past week.

However, I will rise from the ashes and rubble and start over again.  I will study and TAKE MY TIME for my USMLE Step 3 and take this exam this summer.  After that I will be technically licensed and may be able to work in some capacity in urgent care situations.  In September the application process will start again, and to be honest September is really not that far away.

I still want to be in primary care and will apply to family medicine programs this time around.  During the previous application process I only applied to internal medicine programs which hurt me in the long run.  If I would have applied to family medicine programs this past year, I probably wouldn’t be in this situation now, but waiting an extra year to do residency does not have to be a bad thing.  I will finish my Step 3, take time and visit family in India, look into research opportunities and clinical opportunities, and re-apply starting in September of this year. And of course I will finally have time to properly study.

After this week I will begin to rebuild my medical career.  I will catch my breath, and everything will be fine, and I will start residency next year.  At least this time around I will have adequate time for family and friends and a chance to relax.

Today was my first day of my neurology rotation at the Neurological Institute of Valdosta.  This is my final clinical rotation of medical school. I will be here for 4 weeks.  I have not been to Valdosta in nearly 11 years.   I have fond memories of driving to Valdosta during my teenage years to see movies and hang out at the mall.  I am curious to see how this small city has changed.  Maybe I’ll run into some familiar faces I haven’t seen in a long time.  This type of reunion has sort of been a theme in every rotation I have done since moving back to Georgia in November.

It was short lived, but for the first time in over 20 years there was snow on the front lawn of my childhood home.  The snow has since melted away.