A Lengthy Update

Thought I would give a little update now that we have a firm idea of what the next few months will bring.  First, Josh has finished 4 weeks of his internal medicine core and is enjoying it. This is his last core, which means when he is done in August he will be a 4th year, woohoo!  He will take a few weeks off to study for the Step 2 Clinical Knowledge test, which he will take September 14th.  He will do a 2 week rotation here, then he is off to Columbus, Ohio for a 4 week rotation in October and Fort Wayne, Indiana for a 4 week rotation in November.   Both of those places have family medicine residencies he is interested in so he wanted to spend some time there so that 1) he can see if they are a good fit for him and if he would like working and living there and 2) so that they can get to know him and see how lucky they would be to have him in their program!  So while it stinks that he will be gone, I fully support him and am excited for him.  I am not completely sure what those months will look like for us, but Shane will be starting preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I would like to be here for that, so I am sure we will be here during the week and make a couple long weekends of visiting Josh and checking the towns out.  Wish me luck!  After that should be interviews and he will do the rest of his rotations here and finish at the end of April, and start residency next summer!  At least that is the plan! 

As I type he is in Houston having just taken his Step 2 Clinical Skills test, an 8 hour practical exam where he interviewed fake patients.  I have been the fake patient for the past few weeks, there is a cool book that outlines for you different cases and what the patient is supposed to say/have and gives you a checklist for the things he is supposed to ask and do and then what the possible diagnoses are.  It has been kind of fun for me, and I will say I think he will make a great family doctor.   

The hardest part for him has been typing the soap note quickly afterward, you try typing without a pinkie ha ha.   

Anyway, the test is done and over thankfully and I am confident that he passed but it ended up being a little nightmarish- his flight was 3 hours late and he didn't get into his hotel room til midnight, and the worst part, he lost his voice the day before!  And he had 12 fifteen minute interviews to do, that is a lot of talking!  I knew they would let him reschedule if it was really a problem but it is a big pain because this test is only given in 6 cities in the whole country and the dates are booking quickly so he really didn't want to do that.  So I was on pins and needles the whole day wondering if his voice was going to hold out enough to do it, but thankfully it did.  I thought it was funny that what he said really helped him was in between each room he drank the hot water that was meant for the coffee.  Gross, but I'm glad he thought of it and I'm glad it helped!  He won't get the scores back for a few months so any prayers in the meantime are appreciated!

Wow, I was going to do a little update on the kids but I think this post is already long enough so I will do one on them next.

*For any Rossies out there (which lets face it, are probably the only ones still reading all of this med school mumbo jumbo) a good thing to know if you are wanting to schedule non-affiliate electives- it took Ross more than 60 days to do anything, and that was when he already had it confirmed with the programs and all Ross had do was approve it.  So if you are wanting to do some, plan waaaayyyy ahead and feel free to ask me any questions.