2009

Happy new year everyone! I can't believe it's 2010. I'm 2 weeks from finding out if and where I match for ophthalmology, 4 interviews away from being done with all my interviews for the year (FINALLY), 2.5 months from the general match and finding out where all my friends are going to be (Yay!), 3 months from India, and less than 5 months from graduating from medical school.

It's been a year full of ups and downs. As for me, I can chronicle this whole year in terms of levels of stress. SAD, BUT TRUE.

January: I get an iPhone and it changes my life. On ENT and finding out that packing nosebleeds and performing trachs in the ICU isn't so glorious. What am I going to do with my life??

February: Ophtho is really cool, and it might be everything I'm looking for. I'm told by my ophtho attending that I should go into plastics because ophtho procedure reimbursements are too low.

March: I have no publications or research and am scrambling to write while surviving general surgery and studying for the surgery shelf and OSCE. I manage to scrape by despite getting 7 pts below average on the ortho shelf station. Trying to apply for away rotations, but I don't know anything about ophtho or ophtho programs.

April: USC is not getting back to me. I'm realizing that I shouldn't have applied to just one program. What was I thinking? Freaking out, trying to send applications to Penn, when out of the blue, USC gets back to me! Trying to find a mentor but getting blocked by Marge. Met with Dean Thomas, who text pages Dr. Lyon who agrees to meet with me after clinic that day. I find a mentor! I'm also doing medicine at the VA with Whitney, Amin and Twilight, which helps to keep me sane.

May: I get my M4 schedule back and I have no sub-i scheduled! I talk to Barb and get squeezed into a peds sub-I in November, the heart of interview season. Still trying to write and publish. Still trying to not suck at medicine. Still trying to figure out immunizations and my away rotation. Should I do retina or glaucoma?

June: NMH medicine with Dr. Green. I've never tried so hard in my life. My resident sends me home early every day the last week of the rotation because I am dying.

July: Ophtho at NU. It IS the one! NU is NOT the one. Starting to freak out about my ophtho application. I don't know what to write about and I send Dennis copies of my personal statement at all odd hours of the day. I don't know which programs to apply to and I have no idea how I'm going to collect all the things I need for my application while away next month. I meet Vince, who tells me that it will be impossible for me to make it back to California. Omar tells me that he applied to all 115 programs when he applied and that I should too.

August: Doheny. Dr. Chopra and Dr. Francis. Yoshi and Bryan. Trabectome and endoscopic cyclophotocoagulation. Lots of early mornings and late nights going through charts over and over again, but still got to enjoy LA with Cat and Ham. I manage to figure out how to edit the SF match pdfs, and send out everything 2 weeks before the deadline. 57 programs. $1070 in fees. I interview at USC.

September: ER with Whitney and Dennis. Scrambling to figure out ERAS and prelims and transitionals. I apply for way too many and turn in the application a little too late. I meet Dr. Aldeen and get very worked up over a patient with Alzheimer's. He gives me the best present of the year, for now I have a story to tell at every interview. Tell me about a time you were disillusioned in medicine. Have you ever had difficulties working with your team? How did you handle it? Tell me about a difficult management decision. Tell me about a difficult experience on rotations. The story works for EVERYTHING.

October: Step 2 CS and $1000 gone. I'm exhausted for no good reason and I go home to rest for 2 weeks. PM&R. Step 2 CK, a long and tortuous 9 hours....No more steps for a year! Interviews start on October 30 and I'm off to Yale. I'm nervous and TERRIBLE at my first interview, but I get better. By 15 I'm finally able to get a good night's of sleep before the big day.

November: Interviews and radiology. I get scared by Julia Clark and almost quit radiology midway to reschedule for March. I'm done with most of my midwest interviews and I go home on 11/22 to stay. WOOT.

December: INTERVIEWS. Despite some bumps in the road, I make it to all 25 of my interviews without having to cancel. My mom and I make it through a snow storm in Denver, and a long drive home from San Diego to make my Stanford prelim interview the next morning. I visited 14 different cities and got to see a lot of old friends along the way. It was exhausting, but exciting, eye-opening and awesome. I met so many great people along the way: Yoshi, Bryan, Mira, Ron, Jay, Abigail, Peng, Katherine, Adam....

Big thank yous to:

Cat Ho, who helped take the stress out of Doheny by taking me to beaches and brunches, hosted me countless times over the last month for all my LA interviews, picked me up from the airport and brought me to my interview, helped edit my personal statement and screen my letter of intent for crazy, and has just been incredibly supportive, helpful and hopeful.

Tina and Carlyn, who took care of me when I was in New Haven and NYC. Carlyn looked up train and bus schedules for me and went all the way to Grand Central to pick me up after my interview and after her long day on plastics. She came all the way down from the Bronx despite being sick to see me...Tina introduced me to Dollhouse and Bones, momofuku, street food and took me around in the pouring rain to make sure I would catch the important NYC christmas sights before I left.

2009 was a challenging year in terms of school and career, but also a year of great growth. There was a big part of me that didn't think I was going to make it, and if it wasn't for the fact that UCSF and Stanford were at the end, I don't know that I would have been able to keep it up. It's strange to think that I didn't know what I was going to go into 10 months ago...and here I am, four days away from turning in my rank list. Wish me luck!

P.S. Some 2009 stats!

Favorite movie(s): Avatar in 3D, Star Trek

Favorite book: Twilight series

Best new TV show: GLEEEEEE

Best old TV show: Gossip Girl

Favorite blog: dooce.com

Best new person I've met: Yoshi, who despite being a fellow applicant, has been just been incredibly kind and generous. From practicing interview question topics with me at Doheny, sharing advice about personal statements and programs, exchanging info about programs, supplementals and keeping each other posted with interview dates and schedules, and now with our letters of intent and rank lists, he was always there. And, he's a rockstar (figurative), married to a Japanese hip hop star (literal).

Things that merited celebration: Barack Obama's presidential inauguration and Nobel Peace Prize win, Michelle Obama, finding water on the moon, landing the plane safely on the Hudson, Glee, Cat's kitty, Whitney's engagement, Amy's engagement and wedding

Depressing things: An almost terrorist attack on Christmas Day, Tiger Woods, partisan squabbles and ineffecient and ineffective government, congressmen and affairs, Michael Jackson's death, Iranian riots, China's imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo, Ted Kennedy passes away

Songs that remind me of 2009:
Jay Sean - Down
Taylor Swift - You belong with me
Lady Gaga - Pokerface
Jay Z & AK - Empire State of mind

Hope 2010 ushers in a decade of less terrorism and greed than the previous one. It's going to be a big year for many of us :) Best wishes for the new year!