Today we find out where we will be headed for the next two years. Rotations for our school are done at various places all over the country and we put in for a lottery of our top choices in hope we get a place we could really like.

For a lot of people like us, it was easy to know where we did NOT want to go. The school does 3 mock matches with the numbers of interest in each site as the result. We don't know who they are, and twice our favorite site had twice as many interested as there were spots available. But we stuck with it and by the third time we actually had a shot to get it. I am just praying that people didn't see that and jump back on the bandwagon.

Each location can choose up to half of their available slots. The decision is based on letters that we submit. Only one letter per person to their top choice. Dr. H and I sat down together and wrote ours. We talked a lot about Dr. H's strengths and abilities as a student and his interest in what the location had to offer based on his future hopes. We had a small blurb about Our family ties to the area and why we like it. I felt really good about the letter, I hope others did too. We know we read a few friends letters who didn't follow our format at all. Many of them almost begging, pleading and a little negatively of why they deserve to go there. A lot of it had to do with how their family situation was really hard and that they needed to be chosen because their life was harder than everyone else.

I felt like the letter was a very vague process. The example they gave was awful. It was boring, and brown nosing and a little arrogant? The more I think about it, I think it was the example because it wasn't helpful. So people would have a chance to stand out against those that couldn't think for themselves?

There have been MANY instances that I have been here and thought "these people have needed to be in a pageant." Because the lack of being able to speak, and dress as though you know what you are doing and the ability to present yourself is shocking to me knowing the professional world they are trying to be in.

I wish that there was a class given on how to be professional, or professional's wife? This post is getting away from me.

In the end, I am quickly learning that medical school is just one jump of waiting and hoping and trying for something big to the next. Because after this, it's boards, then moving, then audition rotations, then more testing, then graduating then residency.. oh boy bring it on.

I am a part of a "doctor's wife" forum. While all of us are at different stages in life (clearly, we are right in the beginning) I find a lot of common ground with these women.

Lately, it's the time commitment. Currently, I am chilling at my parents house while Dr. H is doing his preceptorship half way across the country from me. More specifically I left, he stayed put. I grew up very modestly. Money was always tight, quite frankly, it still is. My parents are good, hard working people that will work for a very long time.

The other night Dr. H had called to update on what he had been doing and mentioned a conversation he had with the Doctor her was following. This doctor made $ 400,000 his first year because of the work he put into his job. As a family med doctor, he puts a few extra hours twice a month into the ER to earn extra money raising his income $60,000. I don't even know if my parents make that combined.

My biggest fear about this road, my relationship with my family changes because of the money they assume we have. According to the forum I mentioned before...looks like it's terribly common.


Guess it comes with the territory-money changes everything. I do have my own perspective of course knowing how much money and time we are investing to make a comfortable living; even the lowest salary we still make more than what I grew up with. Many people talk about how in residency you don't make anything, I hope I don't take for granted that especially compared to now, it's still more than most.

The beginning.

Finished. First year of med school down. Let's just say, I am so ready for this day. Maybe I felt like you do when you are a freshman in any type of school, and I am not even the student. It's my husband, Dr. H. (Dr. Husband)

Dr. H and I have been married for 4 years. When we married, I knew this was the direction he had been looking into. I think at first, I never really took him seriously. Like, everyone is "going to medical school." Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.

All of the sudden-saw it. Things I quickly learned about my spouse, SO PERSONALLY DRIVEN. I was never the nagging wife, didn't need to be. He just got it done. He researches everything. Oddly, it's almost like he does it secretively. Many nights our pillow talk is a presentation of something he has been thinking about for months, researching and getting excited about. At first, this was overwhelming. Now, I've learned how to listen to it, and table it.

Applying for med school was so stressful. We forked out SO MUCH MONEY just to apply. We did our best to use money we had and not take out any loans to apply. This narrowed us down to a handful of places to apply to. Which increased the stress level as you might assume.

I cried the day we got our first acceptance. We were in. No matter what, we get to go to medical school. We got lucky and had a few acceptances to choose from. Luckily, all of our interviews were close together which mean we didn't put down a deposit somewhere other than where we planned on going.

I thought for sure, we got in, end of my stress. WRONG.

Like I mentioned before, not long after he started applying to med school, there was a pillow presentation to do what's called HPSP (health professional scholarship program) Simply put-going through the military to pay for medical school. The moment we got an acceptance, we applied. Not to say we hadn't thought about it, because I said a straight up "oh, yeah, that isn't happening." However, all that research paid off and we were accepted into the Air Force. I cried even harder when we got this news. $300,000.00 of debt is a huge number. It all the sudden got MUCH smaller.

Fast forward a year and a half later and we are done with Med School year one. If I do some real math, there were more crappy stressful excrescences than wonderful ones. I have to, HAVE TO, force myself to look past them. It's critical that I do. The worst part about being the wife of Dr. H is no control. Let me put it this way, if he fails a class...he starts over. Not just a re-do or makeup of that particular class; it just starts over. So when your husband comes home with the news that he failed this quarter's anatomy (yeah, if he fails a class in a singe quarter, not over the year, we start over) It's kind of the end of the world emotionally.

The way our school works, the student stands before a board and explains what they think happened to cause them to fail. The board then decides whether or not the student starts over, takes a remediation test or is done with medical school. In our situation, there were so many students that failed this particular quarter, Dr. H got to skip this step and just retake the test. We had to give up our spring break and spend it in a cloud of emotional turmoil. It sucked. I never want to feel that way again.

Dr. H passed, and then sought out any additional help he could get. He was tested for ADD and we visited with a physician about it. We decided to get some medicinal help, and it changed everything. All of the sudden my husband was back to the good student he was before. He was happier and his grades improved. Our home life was bearable again. It was a real issue for him. Not that he didn't have to study less, or it was a magical all knowing pill, he actually studied more; because he could.

Next year will be better. It has to be.