Advice please!!! Medical leave of absence of less than a year even possible?

[Tristy]

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I did all my searches and couldn't find any info on past threads...so here I go.

I basically want to know if it's possible to take a leave of absence/time off due to medical reasons, but not an entire year off- more like 2 months hopefully- to recover.

I had back surgery about 5 weeks ago, medical problems left and right during MSII (and the upcoming divorce, but that's an old story). I managed to pass all my classes with pretty decent grades (given my situation) so I am in good academic standing (I don't know if that even matters for this situation...)

After all the denial and thinking that I was superwoman, I'm now realizing that I'm not in shape whatsoever to start MSIII in July (cr@p, less than a month away). I can't physically do it, period.

I was so messed up by the end of the school year it's not even funny, I don't know how I did it but I managed to do it.

I haven't even started to study for step 1 (scheduled for June 20 😱 obviously will reschedule), for the reasons I explained and that freakes me out every time I think about it.

I am a good student (I'm not bragging or saying that I'm top 5% of my class ) and trying to take the step, and maybe pass it is not an option. It's not fair (well, that's the way I see it) for all the effort I made in these 2 years to get a suboptimal score just because I don't have the time to recover from a year of $hit.

Forgive my rambling, repetitiveness (and maybe not making too much sense), it's 3am here and I'm just thinking and thinking and thinking about all this.

I will speak to somebody from the school about it next week, but I wanted to know if you guys know of people that have been able to delay starting 3rd year without having to take the entire year off 🙁

Or if it's even possible to do this without screwing my career options, what consequences it would carry for MSIV (as in using the "vacation time" now but then I have none in 4th year so when would I have the time for interviews and all that? aghhhhhh), the issue of delayed graduation, etc.

I feel like cr@p about this....I just need 2 months at the most (even my doc told me to not start my first rotation-which is surgery...), not 6 or 12 months, just 2, that's all 🙁

I even thought of not doing the first rotation, redoing my MSIII schedule and maybe take step 1 while I'm taking a light rotation but I don't think I can even do that.

Do you guys think I have any options? Any anecdotes from fellow students? Any suggestions from anyone? current students, mods, anyone? Anything? Even a pat on the back is welcome 😛

I just feel hopeless...So much work, busting my a$$ in school for 2 d@mn years, to end up in this situation...<sigh> I'm desperate.

I need the time but I DON"T (I REFUSE to) need to take a year off.

As always the drama queen of SDN 😳; any advice, anything will be much appreciated. Thank you guys,

Tristy

 

[Law2Doc]

I did all my searches and couldn't find any info on past threads...so here I go.

I basically want to know if it's possible to take a leave of absence/time off due to medical reasons, but not an entire year off- more like 2 months hopefully- to recover.

It's not unheard of to miss a rotation in third year and make it up in 4th year. The caution though is that you use up electives you may need to decide what field you want to go into, or use up time to study for Step 2, or have no vacation.

 

[njbmd]

I did all my searches and couldn't find any info on past threads...so here I go.

I basically want to know if it's possible to take a leave of absence/time off due to medical reasons, but not an entire year off- more like 2 months hopefully- to recover.

I even thought of not doing the first rotation, redoing my MSIII schedule and maybe take step 1 while I'm taking a light rotation but I don't think I can even do that.


Tristy

The best source of information on what is allowed and not allowed is your school-i.e the Dean of Student Affairs at your school. For example, students often start third year late at my school because of taking USMLE Step I late. In order to start third year, you have to have a passing score on Step I by the time third year starts in August. This means that you need to take Step I by the third week in July. Those who take the test later (for whatever reason) wind up starting third year later. If you do not start third year by October, you are dropped back a year in terms of graduation. Most of my class took Step I by the end of June and some of us took this exam the second week in May to make sure that our scores were in on time and not to delay third year. I am sure that other schools, including yours, may be different.

Your school may have specific deadlines for Step I and for starting third year. Your Dean of Student Affairs can advise you on what you are allowed to do as every school is different. Some schools don't care if you have a passing score on Step I before starting third year as long as you have taken the exam. Should the worst happen and you fail, you may be pulled out of rotations. Others have a specific date that you are expected to start and anything later becomes the loss of a year.

See you Dean of Students and outline your problems. Armed with specific information, you can then make the decision that works best for you and your career.

 

[Sean2tall]

Don't stress out. It is certainly not unusual to have circumstances like that. I know of a few people from my school who had various family/health situations and pushed things back a bit. In two cases they did graduate a year later, but 2 months is quite short and seems like it should be quite manageable since you're only just starting 3rd year. As others said, check with your school and see what they can do for you. I would venture that most schools would be quite accommodating like mine. If you are adamant about not graduating a year later, 2 months should be doable, but of course the school would have the final say on that.

 

[Mobius1985]

Congratulations on completing Year 2 with such grace considering your physical and psychological issues. My school accomodates pregnancy issues without any problem. I can't see how they would refuse to accomodate a surgical recovery. If you were in Year 1 or 2, you might have problems staying on track. But during third year rotations there is room to maneuver and still finish the year on time, especially if all you ask is a 2-month time frame adjustment. Talk to your dean ASAP, so worrying about this won't keep preying on your mind. Also, my school is one of those that requires completion of the Step I (rather than a known passing score) before proceding to clerkships.

 

[samenewme]

Talk to your dean. I knew someone who had a 2-3 month delay because of brain surgery and was able to spread things into her 4th year vacation time and I think graduate on time. Schools' policies will vary, but it's not unheard of.

 

[Orthodoc40]

Regardless of whether it puts you back a year or not, the bottom line is that you need time to recover, like it or not, and if you don't take it, there's some chance things will be even worse later.

 

[smq123]

Any anecdotes from fellow students?

🙂 Tristy - I sent you a PM.

 

[Blade28]

Agree with the above posts suggesting you speak to your Dean. If your LOA is only a month or two, usually you can "make up" this lost time during your MS-IV year - any more than that, though, and you'll probably graduate late.

But speak with your Dean or advisor and see what options you have.

Best of luck!

 

[smq123]

Talk to your dean.

The best source of information on what is allowed and not allowed is your school-i.e the Dean of Student Affairs at your school.

Agree with the above posts suggesting you speak to your Dean.

I agree, this is good generic advice.

But - for our school specifically, I would probably talk to the registrar's office even before you talk to the dean's office. If you want to take Block 1 off, you'll have to drop surgery (which spans Block 1 and Block 2) - and this will completely screw your schedule up. You'll pretty much have to build a schedule from scratch.

The only problem with building a schedule from scratch is that you're a month away from rotations....and there is a fairly good chance that you'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. You might get lucky, and still have openings at our home school for some rotations....but you also might get unlucky, and be faced with the possibility of doing your family med rotation in Latrobe, or York, or somewhere equally far away. If you don't have access to a car, that's not going to be fun.

I don't know if I made this clear in my PM, and I apologize if I didn't - but look at what rotation spots are available first. Then, if you think that you can rebuild a feasible schedule, talk to the dean's office. But at this point, if you're starting with either surgery or internal med, you couldn't skip Block 1 even if your student dean said that you could.

 

[Tristy]

Dear all,

Thank you so much for all the input, it has given me a lot to think about (I didn't reply earlier because I was analyzing every post to have a more clear idea of where I stand, and also what to specifically ask/talk about tomorrow at my meeting).

I'm not worried about graduating a year late, I've come to terms with it if this were to unfortunately happen. My point was that IMHO I feel (actually hope) that 2 months MAX should be enough to recover. And the whole year off would mess things out even more.

But like many of you have stated, that's the way it works- I mean, medical school and medical leaves in the US..

It's going to be difficult to get all this figured out but all of you gave me some hope to keep some optimism, and very good ideas 😳

smq123: I didn't even think about that 😱 but now I will definitely check on that, and PM you too about what you told me before (these weeks have been hectic, you know the drill....)

OrthoDoc: that's precisely why I accepted that I need time, or I'll be screwed in the long run...So basically you're right in what you said.

Law2Doc: exactly my concern: not having time for electives in my field of choice, and then of course no vacation before starting to work when I graduate, etc.

Blade and everybody else I didn't mention: thank you too for the support, advice and encouragement 😳

I hope to get the ball rolling this week and get this straightened out ASAP...

What makes me so mad is that I don't mind the long hours, the abuse, etc, it's the physically demanding part of it. And also that I had the perfect timing and plan to prepare for Step 1 to get a solid score, and now it's all messed up, and I feel that this will hurt me with the score, then later residencies, etc...

But like I said, I'm just very anxious because of the uncertainty and hope that as I know more about how they can accomodate my situation my anxiety will go down and I will be able to fully concentrate on what I need to do and keep on going with life and school. (and I don't want to go back to Argentina for a full year and do nothing...)

I hope that my good academic standing will help....oh well, soon i'll find out more about all this

 

[Orthodoc40]

Dear all,

I'm not worried about graduating a year late, I've come to terms with it if this were to unfortunately happen. My point was that IMHO I feel (actually hope) that 2 months MAX should be enough to recover. And the whole year off would mess things out even more.

People have taken 1 semester off before. They still had to take another year to graduate, though. The benefit of it is that your last semester ends in December - then you spend from Dec. to May/June prepping for Step 1. Could be a great deal.

 

[Blade28]

But - for our school specifically, I would probably talk to the registrar's office even before you talk to the dean's office. If you want to take Block 1 off, you'll have to drop surgery (which spans Block 1 and Block 2) - and this will completely screw your schedule up. You'll pretty much have to build a schedule from scratch.

Ah. A little insider info. Nice! 👍