Match Day '007

For three years, every year, Jen and I went over to the Radisson to watch other med students find out the course of their residencies. Every year we watched out classmates and friends celebrate their placement in programs across the country. And every year we would smile, congratulate them, pat them on the back for a job well done, then go get in our cars and curse them for being done already. Match day is kind of like going over to see another couples new car when you can't afford anything near as cool. You are happy for them, but at the same time you envy their situation. So for three years we have watched our predecessors raise their full champagne glasses and scream in inebriated glee that they were finished with med school.

This year, the glass was mine, and it was filled with the best Sprite I have ever tasted.

That's right boys and girls, it was our match day.

Now I am sure most of you already know where we are going. But for those who don't, what kind of writer would I be if I gave up the surprise in the beginning?

For those of you who haven't gone through this process, here is a quick summary of what the Match is. When you come close to graduating med school you start to look for residency spots to continue your training. So you send you applications to different programs across the country. After you interviews are all over, you turn in a rank list, ranking the programs you interviewed at from your 1st choice to the last. The programs also rank the people they interviewed; from the person they want most for their program to the person they want least. Wherever these two list match up, that is where you go for residency. If you don't match up anywhere, you have to "scramble." This means you have to call those programs that have openings and try to slip in. You may not get the program or even the specialty that you want. Scrambling is not the end of the world, but it can be stressful and add delays to finishing your training.

Now, to me, Match Day kind of felt like I was in the NFL draft. You go out and interview these places and there each give your their small and secret Wonderlick type test. You spend the next few weeks worrying about your draft status and whether you will go in the first round or how many other rounds you ranked etc. You act like your own agent, sending all these inside messages to the teams you want to draft you, but in the end you have no control over the matter. You have to play for whoever takes you. Now some people are the like the Eli Mannings of the draft, where they can tell a team "if you draft me I won't sign blah blah blah" cause they are good enough to be in a position of bargaining power.

I was like the strong safety at Alcorn St. No one knew me. I had decent numbers but there weren't great. So there was quite a bit of terror involved for me. But I had some good interviews and I thought things would go ok for me. It would be like me showing up to the combine and running a 4.41. A good number but not mind blowing. (after I wrote this paragraph I thought if I am going to use the SS at Alcorn as an example I should at least give him his props. So for your enjoyment I have included a picture of him missing a tackle. I think this underlines my point. And yes, I clearly have entirely no life whatsoever)

So for the weeks leading up to Match Day I couldn't sleep. My wife had told me over and over again that she would kill me if we had to scramble. I felt I was too young to die, so I worried about getting a spot. There were a lot of people trying to do my specialty this year (anesthesia), so competition was high.

The Monday before the Match is called Black Monday. If you don't match, the school calls you to inform you that you have to scramble. So I was nervous all morning, but when the email came that told me I had matched I finally felt I could relax. It was nice to know we had a spot.

So enough of my yakking, here is how things went

Here we are right before we head to the Match. I had made the NFL draft joke so much that Jen went out and got the whole family custom T-shirts for the occasion and gave them to me for for Valentines day. Admit they are sexy... go on admit it.

One of the best things about Match is seeing all your classmates in one place. For me it had been a few years since I had seen any of these people because we have been spread all over the country thanks to Katrina. As you can see, I only associate myself with the best and the brightest people. What can I say, I have high standards.




This is a kid I haven't seen is 2 years, and we are supposedly in the same class. He has been in Houston in exile. There are no words for how much I hated the city of Houston. So I felt his pain. But at least we both have a reason to be happy now.

So finally the moment came where Dr. Kahn announced it was time to get started, adding a few words encouragement to swell our oversized Dr. heads. We immortalized the moment in video. As added bonus, those of you who have sorely missed Dr. Kahn will get your fix. I will not fall into this category. For a Dean of Students, he seemed horribly uninterested in me as a student. I always felt he was rushing me out the door as fast as possible. Oh well, doesn't matter now I guess.

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

After that rousing Intro it was time for me to go and get my envelope. I ran up to the front and came back shaking a little. Look at that picture. Seriously, can you taste the fear? I mean, what other profession does this to people? After all this effort there is some secret match game that determines the rest of your training? Plus you get to go into a quarter mil of debt for the chance to be a part of it. If you don't die of a heat attack from the stress you die in debtor’s prison. Pointing out that I did this voluntarily will only get your teeth knocked out. The job of bringing my attention to my own stupidity is taken by my wife already, but thanks for the application.

So here is it the moment you have all been waiting for...












Here is a video of me actually opening the envelope. Match Day baby, feel the excitement. Feel the energy. Feel the fact that cell phones take crappy video. I sent this to my parents and family as a way to tell them what happened.

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

Jen and I are going to Penn State in Hershey PA!!!!



We were very pleased. It was our number 2 choice but not by much. We debated between that and Vanderbilt in Nashville for a long time and Nashville came out on top. But they shut us down so Hershey it is. I liked the program better at Hershey, but Nashville was going to such a nice place to live so we put it first. However, housing is pretty cheap in Hershey, and so are a lot of other things. It will be a great place to live. Plus, there is no awful intern year at Penn State. They break the intern year up between the four years. So I start out doing anesthesia day 1 (something you can't do in any other but 1 program in the country. That program is in Dallas, and Dallas is a near perfect copy of what I picture hell to be. I am not a big fan of Texas in general you may have noticed)

And did I mention no call for the first 6 months!?!?! My classmates were most jealous.

So that's the whole story. We will keep this blog updated with out exploits in scenic Pennsylvania.

As one last bonus I am adding a link to my other blog. It is filled with my opinions on lots of different subjects, and I try to make it an interesting read. Check it out, and if you think its funny or thoughtful pass it along to your friends and family. Click Here to take a look at it

Also, now that most everyone has updated to Internet Explorer 7 or is using Firefox, there is a way to be made aware when there is new stuff on this blog or any other blog. Most blogs have an associated RSS (really simple syndication) feed. You can subscribe to this feed in your browser, and it will let you know when a new post comes up. Macs also have RSS compatiblity in Safari. Just click on the blue RSS button in the address bar and drag it into your bookmarks bar.

See you all on the road to Pennsylvania.