The hot and sweaty match

Day 3

I had some technical difficulties for this day. I couldn't upload the cutest video of Avery, so that post will have to wait. Instead, I think I will give a brief (hopefully) synopsis on how the end of medical school works. We get this question all of the time, "what are you doing after you graduate?"

For people who have lots of anxieties (me), marrying a med student will definitely flare up those emotions. I never knew graduating and finding a residency program was such a big ordeal till now. Travis will graduate in May. Yes, he will technically be a doctor, but he will only be a resident. This means, crappy pay, crappy hours and the nurses get to walk all over him. He will be a resident for 3-4 years, fortunately, every year it gets better. His pay will go up, hours will go down and those nurses become less powerful..

He is in the process of interviewing for this beloved position. I will try to explain how getting a residency works. If you have been through this situation, or already understand it please don't call me on my BS, I'm explaining it the way I understand it. He has applied to several ER residency programs, and will interview at about 5 places. So far he's done the Tuscon interview, Joplin, MO, and now he's in Eerie, PA then heading to Madison Heights, Michigan and then in January will interview in the KC.

Instead of the typical interviewing and hiring, some wackos developed the "match program." So basically, after all the interviews are said and done, Travis will rank his favorite places. The places interviewing will also rank Travis and all those other med students. In February, all of this craziness goes into effect. Its kind of like a lottery, all the rankings will be entered into a magic computer system, and if by chance, the place you ranked the highest really likes you, and has ranked you high, you will match with that program and will be together for eternity (or just the 3-4 years.)

If for some reason, you aren't on the same page with those other programs, and you don't find a match, you aren't totally screwed. You have to scramble. Every program has a required amount of residencies to fill. If for some reason students don't pick their program then they also need to find students to fill it. So there are scrambling students and scrambling programs that will eventually find each other. Hearing the word "scramble" I just imagine a student at their computer finding out that they didn't match, and then start frantically waving their arms above their head going insane searching for a place. I've heard its not that horrible to scramble.

Another common question we get is, "where do you want to live." The honest answer for me is "I don't know." We for sure won't be back in Utah for awhile. I can't decide if I want to be safe and stay in the KC or if I'm the adventurous type and just pick up and start over? Both options are appealing and not so appealing.

Anyway, not the funnest post, but hopefully you learned something. This next year is going to be insane and exciting. If you have any questions, just Wikipedia it, those geniuses know everything!

Can't wait till February!