Doc Woodbury!

Well, it's official: Garrett is an M.D.!  In some ways, it feels like it's taken forever to get to this point, but in other ways it seems like it was over pretty suddenly!

Graduation week started with a riverboat "cruise" on the Savannah River.  There were three different times to go on the cruise, and we chose the earliest time because our dinner group decided to have dinner together afterwards.  It was a great choice because we literally had the whole boat to ourselves!

The next night was the senior banquet - I wore my dress from Garrett's sister's wedding.  It was a fun time - apparently this is what Garrett's class dues have been going towards.  Frankly, the dinner was nothing to remember but from what I could tell, the open bar was where it was at!  Glad our money went towards someone's enjoyment.

(I guess I missed the black & white memo, haha)

On Thursday, the medical school had their hooding ceremony.  It's a more intimate graduation-type event where the doctors receive their hoods that they wear for graduation.  Since MCG graduation consists of more than just the medical school (dental, nursing, etc), this was a really nice ceremony where they just talked about the MD degree.  It was probably my favorite event of the week.  Great speakers, and a nice reception afterwards.

The gang!!  This was the last time we were all together, sad day.

The ladies

The doctors

It's official! Dr. and Mrs. Woodbury.

Everyone who came to GA for the graduation 

(minus Emma, who stayed home to watch the kids since my babysitter canceled at the last minute)

Thanks to EVERYONE who came to Georgia to celebrate such a big event with us!  Thanks to everyone who watched our kids during that week (Emma & Sheena) and thanks to everyone for all the well wishes.  I am so proud of Garrett and this huge accomplishment that he has achieved.  

Now here's to paying off student loans for the next 30 years! :)  Haha just kidding.  Maybe. No seriously, we will be.

Match Day, by the numbers

We started the day with a brunch at someone's house, then all headed down to MCG for the big ceremony/party.  Afterwards we went to another person's house and spent the afternoon/evening hanging out.  The Match Day theme was "marathon", hence all the workout attire.

100 - percent chance that you will give in to peer pressure and cut your hair in a strange way (especially when your med school career is basically over anyway)  Brunch was crazy, to say the least.

1988 - the year I thought it was when I saw these guys

18 - radiology spots that Garrett ranked

8 - transitional/intern year spots ranked

170 - people in Garrett's 4th year class

about 120 - people who got their envelopes before Garrett (they pull them out of a big pile, in random order)

#1 - the spot Garrett got for radiology (Gainesville, FL)

#2 - the spot Garrett got for his transitional year (Newport News, VA)

3 - people we know coming with us to Newport News

about 1000 - high fives, shouts of joy, and hugs

(I still need a pic of Will and Paige!)

6 - different places we will all be scattered for the next couple of years

12 - ecstatic (and nervous!) people, ready for the next stage of our lives!

(Justin & Lindsay - Roanoke, VA and Memphis TN; Garrett & Hannah - Newport News, VA and Gainesville, FL; Rob & Haley - Newport News, VA and Charleston, SC; Rick & Kristin - Asheville, NC; Will & Paige - Kansas City, KS; Andrew & Jessica - Winston-Salem, NC)

Match Day was really one of the most fun, exciting days of my life!  Being in that auditorium with all those fourth year medical students opening their match envelopes was so neat.  There were lots of tears (mostly happy from what I saw).  It was just such a cool experience, and MCG did a great job of celebrating their students' achievements.  I am so proud of Garrett and what he has accomplished - I can't believe graduation is just around the corner!

Can you believe....

...that this guy is going to be a radiologist?  Me neither.

Match day post coming soon....

A sigh of relief

We got together tonight with our dinner group to celebrate a successful match. All six guys matched - we are all so proud of them! Now we just have to wait until Thursday at noon, when we find out where we are all going!

Congrats, guys!

Your future doctors of America!

Garrett - radiology

Rob - radiology

Andrew - pathology

Will - urology

Justin - ophthalmology

Rick - ob/gyn

Success!

Garrett matched!!

It's the final countdown......

Tomorrow (Monday) at noon, Garrett will receive an email telling him whether he "matched" or not. If he matched, we will be ECSTATIC and then we will only have to wait until Thursday to find out where we will be spending the next 5 years of our lives!

If he didn't match, then things will get busy! Last year, 382 radiology applicants did NOT match... or, about 1 in 6. And with 9 radiology hopefuls in his class... it's a bit nerve wracking!

So what will happen if Garrett doesn't match? We "scramble"! As I said a few weeks ago, programs make their own rank lists, and applicants make their lists. However, not all programs fill all their positions through the algorithm, for a variety of reasons. So, on Tuesday at noon, a list of all these positions will be made public for everyone who did not match. All unmatched applicants will see see the list of all the unmatched programs, all specialties. Last year, there were 6 spots open in radiology (for the 382 people to fight for!). Garrett would have to contact the programs available and try to convince them to hire him for residency. He will have advisors and other people from his medical school helping him in this process as well. Usually all un-filled (radiology) positions get filled within the first half hour that the list is made available, from what I hear.

So, either Garrett can re-apply for radiology next year, or choose an entirely different specialty - basically a whole other career in medicine! I asked him today what his second choice would be, and he had no idea.

Needless to say, nobody wants to experience the scramble, so tomorrow is a very big day for us. We're very nervous for ourselves, and for our friends who are going into radiology as well. Even though Garrett and his friend are great applicants, you just never know what will happen. You know, you always hear that story of "the great candidate who didn't match and nobody knows why".

So.... I'll post tomorrow afternoon with the results, if they are good! If there's no post tomorrow, you can assume that we are freaking out. :)

Making our list, and checking it twice....

[this is a long, boring post with no pictures]

Well, the day is here.. tomorrow our ROL (rank order list) is due.  Remember all those residency interviews Garrett did during Nov/Dec/Jan?  Now we get to list them all in order of how much we would like to go to those programs.

With 18 radiology programs in the running, it's very confusing and overwhelming.  When Garrett first started interviewing, I spoke with him at the end of each interview, questioning him about every aspect of each program and keeping careful notes, because I knew it would all get confusing in the end.  However, about 1/3 of the way into interview season, Garrett got pretty burned out and they all seemed to run together.  It was hard for him to really differentiate between some of the programs.  Some weeks he had 4 interviews in 4 different states.  It was a lot.

Now, as we sit together and discuss and compare programs, it hasn't gotten any easier.  How do you decide between 12 good programs? (I say 10 because there were about that many that he genuinely liked and would be happy at).  What criteria takes precedence when it comes to the ranking process?   In the end, it seems like the things that take the most precedence are:
1. strength of program
2. closeness to family (either side)
3. health insurance (a couple programs offer full "free" (no premium) coverage for the whole family
4. cost of living / real estate

Other things of importance: can Garrett wear scrubs every day?  any moonlighting opportunities?  historically, what is the resident pass rate for the boards? what is the weather like? is there good fishing there?  how nice/outgoing were the other residents?  how happy did they seem?  what is the call schedule like?

Salary is pretty comparable at each place.  It varies between a few thousand dollars, but when you factor in the cost of living, it all evens out pretty well.

Here's a little breakdown of our options... without giving too much away.

• 18 programs
• 11 different states
• mostly in the Southeast, but there are a few in the midwest and in AZ
• closest program to my family: 350 miles
• closest program to Garrett's family: umm.... much, much closer than 350 mi

Oh, AND... one other thing. Garrett isn't only applying to radiology programs.  If you do radiology, you need to do a "preliminary" year beforehand.  Garrett interviewed at 11 preliminary (or transitional, same thing) programs.  Under each and every radiology program that he ranks, he must "sub-rank" his preliminary programs.  Our prelim rank list is pretty similar under each radiology program, but they vary a bit depending on the location of the radiology program (i.e., some prelim programs are in the same cities as radiology programs that he interviewed at.  For example, under his Knoxville radiology rank, the prelim program in Knoxville is ranked higher than it is under other radiology programs).

Confused yet?

That's all I'll really say right now.... obviously, we are really stressed out about how to rank these programs but we seem to have a pretty solid list done.  It must be submitted and certified by tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9pm.  Wish us luck!!

Now we can relax!

When Garrett and I first got married, he was already starting to think about the MCAT (entrance exam for medical school), and getting stressed with picking the right classes that would best prepare him to take the test. The next summer, he spent nearly all his time studying and I remember thinking, "I can't wait until this test is over, then we can just relax and move on with our lives!"

But then the scores came in, and Garrett decided to go ahead and apply for medical schools right away, instead of taking a year off in between. So, we hurriedly got everything together, secured letters of recommendations, paid a lot of money, and waited for the letter to come. It was an extremely stressful time in our lives because Garrett was a late applicant, and he wasn't going through BYU's committee (BYU pretty much told him he would never get in any school without the committee, but we went for it anyway). Garrett was so worried that he wouldn't get into medical school, and then he would have no idea what to do with his life because he had grown up wanting to be a doctor.

Finally, the letter came saying that Garrett had gotten into medical school, and I remember thinking, "There, it's done! Garrett is definitely going to be a doctor, we know that. Now we can just relax and move on with our lives!" I knew it would be stressful and that I would never see him, and I expected the worst and hoped for the best (I do that a lot in my life... it's worked out well for me).

Then school started, and to be honest the first year wasn't too bad. He even had a summer break the next year, so we were able to spend evenings together after he got out of work. Second year started out well, too, but then the Step 1 Boards started looming over him, and the stress started up again. He studied non-stop, and sometimes didn't come home from the library until it closed. When he was home, he was studying. It wasn't a very fun time. I remember thinking, "When this test is done, everything will be just fine and we can just relax and move on with our lives!"

Then the test was over. He had a 2 week summer break that year, which was a great time for him to relax and de-stress from the test. Then third year started, and he was working in the hospitals and various clinics. And to be honest, third year wasn't too bad for me. I know he clocked in a couple of 120-hour weeks, but he averaged about 60-70 hours a week so it wasn't too bad. I remember thinking, "This is great! Garrett's enjoying what he's doing (for the most part), and now he just needs to figure out what kind of doctor he wants to be." We started thinking about residencies (additional training that he must complete after graduation, anywhere from 3-7 additional years).

Then he decided. And, I suppose that I should have known that Garrett would not choose something easy. He wouldn't specialize in something that has 1000 residency spots and only 900 applicants. He also wouldn't do something that only requires 3 more years. No, Garrett wants to do radiology, which is extremely competitive - as if we need more stress in our lives!

And so, applications to residency programs have been sent. He has applied to 45 different programs in various states - Arizona, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South/North Carolinas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Ohio. Not only is he applying to radiology, however. He is required to complete a "preliminary" year, so he applied to 30 of those programs too (it's pretty much a year of working in various places in the hospital, similar to what he is doing now... I think it's just a way for hospitals to get more cheap labor before they become board certified). Ideally, he will get a preliminary position in the same place he will be for radiology, so we only have to move once.

And that's what's happening here. Naturally, I am thinking that "once this is over, and once he gets a radiology position, then we can just relax and move on with our lives." However, I know by now that that's just never the case, and there will always be something looming over us. That's just been our life for so long that I can't even imagine a life where something isn't constantly looming over our heads.

If you are still reading this... now you know what we've been up to lately! We are anxiously awaiting invitations for Garrett to interview at the various locations. With 45 applications out, he's hoping to get 12-15 interviews (for radiology alone). So far he has one radiology interview in Knoxville in November, and a few interviews for preliminary positions (one in SC, one in NC).

So yes, life is busy and stressful right now... add to that an infant who won't sleep (and wants to be held ALL DAY), and a two-year-old who refuses to be potty trained. Isn't life great? :)

A decision?

Garrett is finishing up his 4-week radiology rotation, and he loved it. He is 90% sure he wants to pursue radiology as a career.

I'm very excited about it, but obviously nothing is certain, so we'll see if something comes along that he likes better. But, I love this choice because radiology is extremely family-friendly, both as a residency and as a career (unlike other things, such as surgery... I once heard of a surgery residency program that prided itself on a 100% divorce rate among its residents, it was so rough).

Anyway, Garrett really likes radiology. The technology is really neat, and there are many things he could do within the specialty. This is a great relief to Garrett that he's found something he likes so much. He used to be worried that he wouldn't fall in love with anything, but now we know there is at least ONE specialty he would love to do. Now we'll just have to wait and see if anything else can top it!

Welcome Third Year!

First day of rotations!

Garrett is 4 weeks into his third year of medical school, and he is really enjoying it. He's pretty much done with classroom lectures, and for the next two years he'll be working in the hospital, rotating around between specialties.

So far he's done 2 weeks of orthopaedic surgery, and two weeks of plastic surgery. He especially liked ortho, and has put that on the list of possibilities for his career. The schedule was pretty good - usually he had to be in around 6 or 7 a.m., but he was home by 4 or 5 every day, and sometimes earlier. A short day, when it comes to the medical field.

This week, Garrett starts his 4 weeks of general surgery. This rotation is know to be pretty rough, so we'll see how it goes. I think that more than anything, he's just happy to be out of the classroom. His days go by much more quickly when he's working with doctors and other residents. The only thing that kind of stinks is that he's on call 4 times (that means he works all day at the hospital, then spends the night there, then works the next day until early afternoon). Everyone else in his group was only assigned to be on call twice, so it was really weird that Garrett had 4 nights, but oh well. Two are in one week, so he'll get them over with pretty soon. Hopefully he'll actually get to sleep and won't be called into surgery all night. We'll see!

HE'S DONE!!

Garrett finished his Step 1 Boards today!!

I am so proud of him. We'll find out his scores in about 4-6 weeks. Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement he's gotten during the last couple of weeks.

I took a picture of the happy boy as he came home today:

It's the Final Countdown

11 DAYS! It seems like we've been waiting forever for June 19th to come, and now it's just 11 days away.

Garrett takes his Step 1 Boards that day, which is probably the most important test he will ever take in medical school. How well he does will determine what kind of doctor he is qualified to be. And while he's not sure yet what he wants to specialize in, he wants to keep his options open, which means that he has to do really well. It's nerve-wracking! I remember a couple years ago when Garrett was studying for the MCAT, and I was thinking, "wow, this is really stressful. When the MCAT's over, then we can finally relax." But, that wasn't the case... getting into medical school consumed our thoughts, and so that was the next big thing. I remember during that time I was thinking, "Ok, once we're in medical school, then we can relax. Yes it will be hard and stressful, but once he actually get in, everything will be fine." But the stress just never ends! I don't even know if Garrett will be able to relax during his 2 week break after the Boards, because he'll be nervous thinking about third year, which starts in the beginning of July (and is rumored to be the busiest school year of your life). Where is the light at the end of the tunnel??? I'm beginning to think it doesn't exist.

Last weekend I was talking to Garrett about our trip (we are going to Maui!), which starts 2 days after his test. "Hawaii?" he said, "Oh yeah... I haven't even thought about Hawaii." Poor guy.... that's how stressed out he is!

I know Garrett isn't happy that the test coming up so rapidly, but I'm ecstatic. He hasn't had a decent night's sleep in over a week because he can't get anatomy/ physiology/ pharmacology/ pathology/ biochemistry/ genetics to stop racing through his head. Poor guy.

And *I* miss hanging out with our couple-friends, which he hasn't had much time for in weeks. I know, aren't my complaints so minimal compared to his? But I want my husband back!

Garrett, if you're reading this... I miss you. See you in 11 days! (really, I'll see you in about 3 hours, but it will only be a shadow of you, because your brain will stay on study-mode and we probably won't be able to have a real conversation. But it's ok... for the last week or so I've been saving up all my thoughts and conversations I've wanted to share with you. We're going to be taking a 15-hour trip together on the 21st... be prepared.)

Flashback Friday - White Coat Ceremony

Garrett started medical school a year and a half ago, in the fall of 2006. It was such a fun time for us - we were living in a brand new place, I was pregnant, we were meeting lots of great people at Church, and we were just starting our Church callings (which we love!).

Medical schools have something for the freshmen that they call a "White Coat Ceremony" where - you guessed it - everyone receives their white doctors' coats! Well, they aren't real doctor's coats, because they are shorter than a real doctor's coat would be, but it was so neat! We had been hoping and praying to get into medical for what seemed like so long, and finally there he was, looking so handsome in a white coat with his name on it. For me, seeing Garrett in his white coat finally made it real for me that Garrett was going to actually become a doctor (a very happy and sad feeling at the same time. Happy because he'll save lives, but sad because being a doctor is very time-intensive).

The White Coat Ceremony was very nice. They had a few speeches, and then each person's name was called and they went to the front and someone put the coat on them. After the program there was a very nice reception with great food. It was especially nice because Garrett's parents were able to be there for it, which was great.

Tune in next week for Flashback Friday... I think I'll share my most embarassing moment (and it's pretty good!).

Woot

The above pictures are from our spring break. Abby loved that black chair at Garrett's parents house. The third picture is Garrett and his friend Mark at the beach in Hilton Head. Some people sitting near us were building a huge pyramid with steps and everything, it was really cool looking. So, Mark and Garrett wanted to make something cooler. As you can see... they didn't. Oh, and while we were in Hilton Head I saw my first ever alligator! And it was alive! Mark and his wife Abby rented a condo for the week, and there was a little tiny pond right outside their building, that's where the alligator lived! There wasn't a fence or anything! And it started swimming over towards us and we were standing on the edge of the water!! I was so scared and Garrett made fun of me. I mean, it was just a little one, but still. A real live alligator! (see the pic below. It may not look threatening, but trust me, it was).



But first off, a big congratulations to Mike and Shauna!! They are expecting! Woot woot! We are so excited for them. It's so fun to see our family expanding and adding to the mix of cousins. I hope Abby will be able to be close with all her cousins, especially the ones near her age. This will be so fun!

The rest of our spring break went really well. We spent a few more days in Savannah just hanging out with Garrett's parents and his little 3-year-old brother Rylan. Garrett seems to think it's his duty to make sure Rylan experiences the whole "sibling" thing (the next youngest kid is 19, so Rylan is in some ways an only child), so Garrett makes sure to tease him and give him a hard time like any big brother would do (well, any 6-year-old or so :) ). It's kind of funny to see them play together; they are really cute. It's especially fun to see Rylan interact with Abby and talk sweetly to her. I love watching little kids with babies... they act all grown up and try to be mature like the adults, copying what we do and say to the baby. It's cute. Rylan comes up to Abby and says in a sweet high pitched voice, "Hi Sugar!! This is Uncle Rylan!"

Oh, and another funny thing that happened over break was with our friends Rob and Haley, who came to Savannah for a few days to visit us. We were talking and it turned out that Rob was born in the same hospital that Emma and I were, and that his family lived on the Air Force base in Omaha at the same time we did! They're LDS, so I figured my parents must have known his family, and sure enough, they did! My mom was all excited when I told her, and she said that she has a picture somewhere of Rob and Mike together! It's funny because Garrett and I are really good friends with Rob and Haley, but we've never made that connection until now. And, at the beginning of the school year when we first met them, it turned out that Garrett and Haley knew each other from a few years back. What a small world! We all graduated from BYU but they left Provo around the time Garrett and I got married, and we never met out there.

Hmm, what else? Our washing machine needs to be fixed. Luckily when we got it fixed a few months ago we bought a 1 year warranty, so it will be free to fix it. What a hassle, especially since there's a load of clothes sitting in there that we can't take out! It's a front loader so if we open it tons of water will come spilling out. Hopefully the Sears people can come tomorrow.

We're still not positive about our summer plans, but it looks as if Garrett will work for his Dad again, so we'll probably go down to Savannah during the week and then come back here on the weekends to take care of the house and for our Church callings (I'm in YW, he's in YM). He worked in his Dad's office last summer too (his Dad's a doctor) and that was good experience. It'll be annoying having to drive back and forth, but it'll be worth it because it will pay well, and plus he'll be able to take off all the time he needs, like for Scout camp and for the week at the beach (his parents are renting a beach house for a week in June!). So, we're excited for the summer. It's his last real "summer" too, because next year he has the boards in May (standardized testing, about 10x worse than the MCAT, in my opinion) and then he starts rotations in the hospital in June or July. So... yeah, life is moving fast. I cannot believe Garrett's first year of medical school is almost over. I can't believe he'll be a doctor in 3 years!! So exciting... then he can write prescriptions for you all, haha. He's still not sure what kind of doctor he wants to be, but usually around the 3rd year is when people decide. The rotations in the hospital help decide that. He does know, however, that he does NOT want to be an OB/GYN or work in pediatrics. I would like him to do dermatology or radiology, but those are very competetive fields, so we'll see. Garrett's uncle is a dermatologist in Reno and he works 3-4 days a week, and doesn't even own a pager. AND, Garrett just found out in his lecture yesterday that the specialty his uncle is in is the highest paid specialty in the entire medical field. Woot. I wouldn't mind that. BUT, his uncle had years and years upon years of training. Nothing comes easy.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Emma, make sure you talk to John about my investment idea, and get back to me! (for all you who don't know what it is, it's basically that John invests some of his money in my name, and gives me the profits. And I'll give him like 10%). Yeah, I'm a genius.