(Almost) Survived Medical Training and lived to tell the story!!

[L.Jane]

Welcome. We are just starting the fellowship search. The thought of moving and starting over again is both terrifying and exhausting.

[houseelf]

Welcome back, we're always here and always forgiving with lapses of time between visits. We get it. The lifestyle is a wee bit crazy. We're looking forward to reconnecting.

[Thirteen]

Welcome back!


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[ladymoreta]

Welcome! I'm another "newbie" who started about 5 years ago. Looking forward to getting to know you!

[MrsC]

Welcome back!

[Mrs.Doctor305]

Oh wow, I'm over here, kind of in the same boat FREAKING OUT. No kids yet, working on it but moving from a big city, after 5 years of general surgery residency and and additional one of fellowship, to a really small town. It's so good to know I'm not the only one going through this crazy time!

[spotty_dog]

Welcome back! Unfortunately I'm great with usernames and avatars but terrible with matching stories to people, so I am afraid I don't remember you. But I'm glad you found us again when you needed us! (My kids are 6 and 4, born in intern year and PGY-3, so we're kind of just a year ahead of you that way! But we've been living in a tiny town for nearly four years now...it suits us really well, so we've been super happy and I hope you will be too!)

[Agentamer]

I'm new since you've returned...tell me more. DH wants to match in Radiology next year and might be interested in IR. I'd love to hear about the job search--we are hearing lots of scary stuff lately. How did he like his residency program? (if you don't want to share on the public boards, I understand)

My husband LOVES IR!! But didn't really like having to do radiology to get to it. He always says it should be it's own thing. Radiology (from what I have heard from the IR type folks) is a split field and there is usually no grey--either you LOVE IR or you hate it. People usually know right away if they are going to do IR. My husband loves it because he always loved surgery type stuff so he really gets to best of both worlds.

As for radiology residency, you may have heard it is an "easier" residency for hours in hospital. I agree. Compared to others (especially the surgical residencies) you are not "in house" as much. I know this part is changing, but my husband had 3 board exams. Physics, written and oral boards. PGY2 (first year of radiology residency) was basically a cake walk. No solo call. Lots of free time. (highly recommended to any prospective radiology person to STUDY DURING THIS YEAR!!) Year 2 began to suck as physics boards came, our #2 child came and call began. Then year 3-4 were super crazy!! Call got very very intense, and he moonlighted constantly. He was gone pretty much for those entire 2 years. THEN the fellowship applications and match for IR (match is an entire year in advance). At least at Mayo, it seemed like he was always doing some sort of presentation for something too.

You can choose a medicine or surgical intern year OR a transitional year (which is essentially a 5th year of medical school because you do big rotations in everything). If memory serves me correctly, I believe that the best rad residencies are probably Washington University (in St. Louis), Stanford, and Mass General. However, I know that those residencies kick your butt and I can't imagine that the outcome is any better than another small one. My husband interviewed at maybe 12-15. He liked many programs but he also had to take into account starting a family so he ranked Mayo in Rochester MN #1 and we did our transitional year at Gundersen Lutheran in La crosse. He really enjoyed his time there and the good thing was he got to moonlight (which I think rules are being changed a little). THAT was good and bad. He made some good extra cash, but gave himself the hours of a neurosurgery resident instead of a radiology resident as he worked all. the. time.

Anyhow, if I had to speak for the DH, I think he would say that the worst part of radiology in general is that it is virtually impossible for any person to master every single aspect of the field. Other docs have systems that they specialize in (most of the time much more specialized) A radiologist has to be able to be a master in every part of the body so as he/she can guide the other docs to help with diagnosis and treatments. So that is a negative. He also said that oftentimes, the docs in other specialties were so good in their specialty that what a radiologist had to say was really not helpful, therefore, a waste of time. Not always, but sometimes, especially when it comes to ortho because usually those people know what they are looking for and the radiographs are just a formality.

So, I would encourage your DH to look at IR. The hours aren't as bad as people say (okay, fellowship kinda stunk, but he loved it SO much he was a happy exhausted fellow. SO I was happy being alone the entire year knowing he was loving what he was doing.). Good luck on his choice!!

[Agentamer]

Oh wow, I'm over here, kind of in the same boat FREAKING OUT. No kids yet, working on it but moving from a big city, after 5 years of general surgery residency and and additional one of fellowship, to a really small town. It's so good to know I'm not the only one going through this crazy time!

I am from a small town where everyone knew everyone, but my family was like dirt poor, so there were no expectations. Now, it's like "oh your the DOCTOR's wife". We went to visit for a couple days to our new town and word got around we were visiting and people were like OH you're the new doctor family. Then one lady in a little candy shop we were shopping at asked me "Oh wow. So, what's it like being a doctor's wife?" I just said "well, I am $250,000+ in debt from student loans, I have moved to 5 different states in 6 years and my kids will never know their family. Guess not that great." She looked at me sorta funny.

[MrsC]

I hate this too. We try to avoid telling people what DH does whenever possible. I know it's really hard in a small town (we'e in Upstate NY now) and I come from one. He gets people coming up to him in the hospital complimenting him on the work we've done to our house (we have a 3 bed, 2 bath that we remodeled) and he has no idea who they even are! Disconcerting to say the least. I just try to focus on the positives of not living in a city (like avoiding the people who perpetrate this opinion of doctors and their wives lol) and people generally mean well. Now that they've gotten to know us, we don't get any comments on his job.

[SoonerTexan]

Thanks for the info!!! Very good to know.