I Call Shotgun

Medical school is like a road trip. You know the destination. You know what mile markers you will pass along the way. You know what you would like to achieve. You also know that road trips have lots of unknowns. The same thing that makes the trip exciting also makes it very scary. It’s stressful knowing there is potential for break downs or getting lost along the way. It’s stressful knowing that you could start your road trip and realize you may want to turn back. Even with all of these knowns and unknowns of road trips, we still get in the car, fill up, check for the wallet, grab the camera and buckle our seatbelts, because we all know the best part about road trips is not the destination … it’s the journey.

Through our medical school journey, I’ve been lucky enough to have the shotgun seat since the start of the trip. My husband and I have had many stops along the way. We’ve traveled the entire ride with our two children (buckled in, of course), and so far I would say we’re still enjoying the road, even though it’s getting a little bumpy.

My husband is MS4. As those who have traveled this road before us know, what makes the fourth year exciting also makes it scary. This is the part of the trip where we endure audition rotations, interviews, big financial expenses, ranking and the match. This is the year where the title of Doctor is given and with that so are the responsibilities of that title.

Are we prepared? I don’t know…

What I do know is that we traveled a long way to get where we are. The best part of riding shotgun is knowing you had a major influence along the way. I’ve been right by my husband’s side when he first decided we were taking the medical school journey. I’ve been right there with him as he prepared for the MCAT, sent applications, interviewed, got accepted into medical school and moved our family across the country.

I made sure I tightened our seatbelts as we endured the long days of MS1 and MS2 always keeping my eyes open and looking for moments of encouragement. There really isn’t much that you can do when your spouse is studying for 16-18 hours a day, other than being supportive and making sure they know you are there if they need you.

MS3 was a great part of the journey, aside from the stress of the board exam. It was the part of the trip where you really get to decide how you’re going to move forward. What kind of doctor do you really want to be? What size hospital do you feel best in? Can you work with others? Can you handle the long enduring days of this lifestyle? Can you handle death? Can you remember what you are learning? Can you apply what you’re learning? Can you rely on others to help, teach and guide you? With each question, my husband experienced a bit of self-doubt. He experienced the part of the trip where you think "Did I make the right choice?" The answer was yes. We have traveled so far to get to this spot. It is now time once again to tighten that seatbelt and finish the trip.

We know this year will be difficult. My husband scheduled 5 away audition rotations and I am prepared to be a single mom for literally half the year. We have no intentions of celebrating the major holidays on the actual day this year. We don’t even know if we will be home on Christmas or sitting in a hotel. We don’t know if we saved enough money to pay for this year, we don’t know if the CV is good enough to get interviews. We haven’t decided on our top programs yet. We haven’t even started to think about the match.

One thing we do know is that we are all still in the car heading in the right direction.

When I was asked to contribute to the LDW blog, I thought, "Yikes, I don’t have any good advice." I went back and forth about what to write and realized every journey is different, and what I could bring to the table is the importance of enjoying the journey. Our children are 9 and 7, we are 8 years into the medical school process and we are nowhere near done. The only ride our children will ever have with us as children is the medical school one, so we want to make sure to enjoy it.

To all the medical school families on this road trip, try to enjoy it. Remember why you wanted to go. Remember where you want to be. Make sure you still take a moment at each stop along the way to be grateful that you have traveled this far. I know we’re grateful for the journey so far.

By: Kendi Judy

Pre-Med Intro: Erin

Good Morning, Lovlies!

My name is Erin, I’m new to the LoDW community. 

I’m really excited to have been added on as a Pre-Med Wife contributor! 



My husband, Jake, and I are from the central Columbus, Ohio area. (O-H!!)

 We met in high school, through marching band my senior year, and have been together ever since. 

We have a little boy, Jaxon, who is 10 months old this month. 

He is the love of our lives and such a happy baby. Right now he is working on big boy front teeth and cruising the furniture. 

Jake has always known that he wanted to be in medicine… Well there was a small stint where he wanted to be a grocery store clerk because his cute little 6 year old self thought that they got to take home all the money.

Anyway, medicine and the idea of being a doctor has always been Jake’s passion. Once college started, he felt called to serve our country and join the Army National Guard as a Radiology Technologist. Jake’s decision to serve in the National Guard took his 4 year undergrad to a 6 year process. This included a 6 month stint in San Antonio and another 6 months in Washington DC for Advanced Training as a Rad Tech and clinicals, which was amazing for his professional development, and a year-long deployment to Afghanistan. 

It’s been quite a journey to get us to this point in Jake’s schooling. Challenges have always been present, whether it was just working full time while doing school full time, or Jake’s training and deployment.

MCAT 

We began the MCAT process while I was pregnant and Jake was taking his final semester of classes. Jake decided, after trolling the boards, that he was going to take his first MCAT without taking a course. Since a majority of his schooling has been online, Jake wanted to see what his ‘Base line’ would be.  It was an interesting time, for sure.

The first MCAT didn’t go as Jake expected. Even though he felt prepared, and being/just finishing all his science undergrad course helped.

His total score was lower than he wanted. It was a decent score, weighing a little heavier in one category… But not good enough for his standards. The distraction of our newborn, me being home on maternity leave, and just having moved in with his mom and step-dad didn’t help, I’m sure.

So the process started again. We didn’t have enough time to enroll him in a course and have it completed before the new year, and new test. So, independent study it was, again. This time he knew what to expect and his studying was set up differently. 

His score only went up by one point, overall. Each of the categories evened out… But that means he lost points in one category, while gaining in the others.

He was so disappointed in that fact and it was a shadow that we dealt with for a few days, but he had applications to complete, so thankfully he didn’t have long to dwell on it.

Applications

The first round of school applications were due 2 weeks after the 2^nd MCAT. My husband, the king of procrastination, who is amazing under pressure, has only preliminarily started his applications… It was a frantic 2 weeks, with a flurry of phone calls, emails and constant stress. We sent out the first applications the week before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately due to the lateness of his MCAT and the time crunch, we didn’t really know what we were doing and transcripts were returned to us.

We decided to rescind our applications and go forward only with our February applications.

I guess the doors closing on the empty applications is just pointing us in a more solid direction with Jacob's eventual school choice.

His applications for the February due date are now in. 

Praise the Lord!

I do believe that as his wife and the mother of our child that is my responsibility to make his experience with med school as easy and stress-free on the home front as possible. So, I try to make myself available for our family. 

Currently, until we get into med school, I work part time and send our little boy to my sister for babysitting during my working hours. This frees up time for my husband who is working second shift at the hospital. Our evenings together are few and far between. 

This set up, I believe, will prepare us for the years of irregularity that Med school and everything that comes with it. 

The life of a doctor and his family is very special one and, in the words of Dave Ramsey, you have to live like no one else, to live like no one else.

(If you are interested in learning more about me, I have a personal blog, Enamored & Elegant. Check it out!!!)

Pre-Med Perspective: It's the climb.

The infamous MCAT is behind us. The applications are in. Secondaries are complete and fees are paid. Now comes the all too familiar waiting game. Ever since I've been married to DH, it's been a test of our patience for our lives to move forward. Seven months after we were married, my husband was deployed to Iraq for 15 dreadful months. After DH was gone for only 30 days, I received news that would play a huge part in our life's course. On Halloween night as I sat by a bonfire with my best friend, my phone rang at 11:36pm. My husband had been hit by a roadside bomb. My heart was beating from my chest as I heard the words coming from my point of contact over the phone. For the next few hours I was restless and prayerful until the moment I heard his voice over the phone. It's surreal to me. It's so hard to understand the pain he felt and I cannot imagine what he lived through. As horrifying and dark the incident was, I am thankful. There is always something good to be found in even the most awful events. From this single event came my husbands desire to become a Doctor. He was the first to administer first aid to the other soldiers wounded in the explosion. It changed him. It sparked a fire in him that I've never seen before. Though his recovery was long and difficult, his doctors impacted his life in a big way and he knew he wanted to do the same for others. So here we are trekking up this mountain. While I am counting down the days until we reach the top, I have to remind myself to enjoy the climb.