- Joined
- Jun 22, 2015
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 10
Greetings,
I've found myself in an unusual situation and I wanted to reach out to the community for advice and guidance. To quickly summarize my situation, I took one step towards my dream of attending medical school when I was extended an offer of admission during the 2015-2016 application cycle. Before I could savor the accomplishment, I was quickly humbled by an unexpected illness. After months of uncertainty I was ultimately diagnosed with Lyme disease, the infection triggering Hashimoto's thyroiditis and the concomitant hypothyroidism. The combination of the infection and autoimmune processes gifted me with chronic fatigue, lack in mental clarity, and a slew of other fun symptoms. I was medically barred from starting school and was granted a one year medical deferment by the admission committee. I have since exhausted that year, and while I have made significant progress, I am still not fully recovered. There are concerns the rigors of medical school and residency would not be in my best interests health wise. My medical care team feels I need more time to recover and has voiced concern about starting school. The consensus is that I would be capable of pacing myself during the pre-clerkship years; however, they feel the clerkship years would be a setup to crash/relapse. Unfortunately, the school has a strict one year deferment policy and I now have two options: start school or forfeit my offer of admission. I am torn by the decision and wanted to reach out and see if anyone might be able to provide some insight. Are there any current medical students in a similar situation navigating medical school with a chronic illness? Is it manageable? Was it worth the gamble on your health?
I want nothing more than to start school; however, I am trying to set the emotions aside and do what is best for my health long term. I have no illusions regarding the rigors of medical school and the long hours that are entailed. I would need to maintain a very regimented treatment plan that includes 8+ hours of sleep per night, frequent meals (5/6 meals per day that have to be home cooked due to a severely restricted diet - AIP), exercise, and timed/regular administration of medication. I have worked extremely hard and made many sacrifices to reach this point - it would be extremely painful to have to walk away from my dream because of a situation that was out of my control. That being said, is there anyone that has had to walk away from a medical school acceptance and change paths? Did you consider other roles in healthcare? I have an engineering degree but I feel a bit vulnerable - everything I have done up to this point has been geared towards medicine.
I really appreciate any feedback - thanks!
I've found myself in an unusual situation and I wanted to reach out to the community for advice and guidance. To quickly summarize my situation, I took one step towards my dream of attending medical school when I was extended an offer of admission during the 2015-2016 application cycle. Before I could savor the accomplishment, I was quickly humbled by an unexpected illness. After months of uncertainty I was ultimately diagnosed with Lyme disease, the infection triggering Hashimoto's thyroiditis and the concomitant hypothyroidism. The combination of the infection and autoimmune processes gifted me with chronic fatigue, lack in mental clarity, and a slew of other fun symptoms. I was medically barred from starting school and was granted a one year medical deferment by the admission committee. I have since exhausted that year, and while I have made significant progress, I am still not fully recovered. There are concerns the rigors of medical school and residency would not be in my best interests health wise. My medical care team feels I need more time to recover and has voiced concern about starting school. The consensus is that I would be capable of pacing myself during the pre-clerkship years; however, they feel the clerkship years would be a setup to crash/relapse. Unfortunately, the school has a strict one year deferment policy and I now have two options: start school or forfeit my offer of admission. I am torn by the decision and wanted to reach out and see if anyone might be able to provide some insight. Are there any current medical students in a similar situation navigating medical school with a chronic illness? Is it manageable? Was it worth the gamble on your health?
I want nothing more than to start school; however, I am trying to set the emotions aside and do what is best for my health long term. I have no illusions regarding the rigors of medical school and the long hours that are entailed. I would need to maintain a very regimented treatment plan that includes 8+ hours of sleep per night, frequent meals (5/6 meals per day that have to be home cooked due to a severely restricted diet - AIP), exercise, and timed/regular administration of medication. I have worked extremely hard and made many sacrifices to reach this point - it would be extremely painful to have to walk away from my dream because of a situation that was out of my control. That being said, is there anyone that has had to walk away from a medical school acceptance and change paths? Did you consider other roles in healthcare? I have an engineering degree but I feel a bit vulnerable - everything I have done up to this point has been geared towards medicine.
I really appreciate any feedback - thanks!