not about my knee

This is a post not about my knee, but the other part of my life, which is medical school. For those that don't know, the way the medical training process works in the US is that first, you do your bachelor's degree in whatever field you choose. Then, you go on to do 4 years of medical school, 2 years devoted to in classroom learning, and 2 years rotating through hospitals. During the fall and winter of your 4th year, you go on interviews for residency, which is an additional training in an area you want. This training can be 3-7 years following med school, depending on the specialty. After that, you can go further and subspecialize, which is called fellowship. Length of fellowship varies depending on what you choose to do. I am applying for pediatrics, which is 3 years of training, and then all pediatric fellowships are an additional 3 years.

Anyway, this program I was initially so so about. It's not as well known a program, and doesn't have the same reputation as some of the other programs I have been to. I was honestly using it as more of a back up program. This was my first interview after the surgery, so I was a bit apprehensive. I did call ahead of time to see if it would be a problem, which they told me it wouldn't be. I fell in love with that program, I thought it was fabulous. The people were so warm and friendly, it was like a blended family. I was quite a bit slower than everyone else, but none of the residents made me feel bad about it, one of the residents offered to give me a piggy back ride down to the restaurant for lunch. We had to walk outside to see the outpatient areas, and being that it was a cold and snowy day here, the streets were quite icy. But the residents formed a sort of huddle around me, saying they will catch me no matter which direction I fall towards. They did try to get a wheelchair, but weren't able to get one, the ER was quite busy and they didn't have any extras.

So now I'm home, my leg is swollen from not elevating it all day, my arms hurt, my shoulders are sore, and I think I compressed my ulnar nerve because I have a lot of tingling in my pinky and ring finger. But I had a great day and fell in love with a program I wasn't expecting to. The only question is if I'm willing to sacrifice reputation for a place I feel really comfortable in. Something to think about.