AI in IM: Days 10-20

I finished with my AI in Internal Medicine today. I am now completely confident in my decision to pursue a residency in internal medicine. I have had the best time I have ever had on the wards in these past four weeks. There was a lot of teaching, there was a great amount of teamwork, it was a low stress environment, I had really great residents and attendings, I saw a variety of diseases, and best of all I was actually making a real difference in patient care.

My residency application is finally submitted. It's almost an unbelievable amount of work, time, and effort that is put into this thing. From compiling the documents, signing papers, asking for and receiving letters of recommendation, putting together a confident yet humble and honest personal statement, and then determining which programs to send the application to...it is a lot of work. And, not surprisingly, actually a lot of money. Each application you send costs money, plus to release your score reports and pay for the national match program...it adds up fast. There goes another $500+ on education-related fees. And I haven't even purchased a flight or paid for a hotel yet. Geesh!

Mike took his GAMSAT today (GAMSAT = UK's version of the USA's MCAT - medical college admissions test). Fingers crossed for a good score - although we probably won't find out for several weeks (typically sometime in November). I'm praying that I'll actually have my Step2CK score before that time (yes, it has been more than 6 weeks since I took the exam...). Oh and also the GAMSAT is only given once per year, and only distributed in the UK - so Mike hopped on a flight to England on Monday and won't be back for a few weeks. Despite the fact that he's away, I am still ridiculously busy with the rest of my medical school responsibilities. I am still loving what I do - I am so incredibly lucky to be able to live my dream. I am reminded of this every day that I spend with my patients; this is truly a humbling and rewarding profession.