I am interested in opening a discussion regarding those of us who aspire to become physicians but have disabilities. While I would include ADD and ADHD as part of this discussion I am more interested in those who have moderate to severe physical and psychological disabilities.
I have a connective tissue disorder which has caused significant damage to my eight cranial nerve. This nerve complex is responsible for balance and hearing. I have some hearing loss but I also have no sense of balance. I suffer from severe orthostatic headaches and orthostatic hypotension. I am in Social Security disability and have a handicap placard for my car. I usually have to walk with a cane to help me keep my balance.
It is very difficult for me to be vertical for long periods of time. I feel dizzy, faint and a LOT of pain. I take a handful of Rx meds every day and Excedrin Migraine, but they only take the edge off.
I had 5 surgeries in 2008 on my spine. More are planned.
I can only imagine these problems will make it difficult to be a medical student. It might be less of a problem during Basic Sciences due to the nature of classroom education, but I can imagine it would make clinicals very difficult.
Due to my dizziness and headaches it's hard to imagine being able to take a full day of classes, labs and also finding 2-4 hours in the evening to study. I have heard of "decompressed" medical schools where they let you do the first two years in three, but that might not even be enough.
Well, I'd love to hear all your opinions. It would be great for other people in this position to chime in.
Moderators, please feel free to move this thread if this is not the appropriate forum.
Thanks, everyone.
Similar threads have been discussed on the pre-allo thread. The danger of SDN is that there will be a ton of folks who say "go for it" without taking into account the cost involved and the likelihood of success. Cheerleaders are a very dangerous group in this respect. The same kind of people who egg a person to jump off a roof with saran wrap wings. Their enthusiastic support doesn't make flying realistic.
The short answer is that a med school and residency would have to be willing to make accommodations for you for you to make it through most med school and residency programs. This has been done from time to time, but not with much regularity. A blind person was "allowed" to make it through one med school a few years back (I'm not sure he ever landed a residency), a number of wheelchair bound students have gotten through as well, etc. But there will be many med schools that simply don't have the ability to make adequate accommodations, because there are costs involved and it impacts others in the program. So a lot of med schools will send out a questionnaire describing the tasks you are going to be responsible for and asking if there is any reason you foresee not being able to do these tasks (without accommodation). With this screening, schools are able to eliminate from consideration many applicants, without ever asking illegal questions about your conditions, and force you to come to them if you would need accommodations. From your description, it sounds like you would have trouble with both the basic science years (where yes, you will potentially be spending entire days in lectures, PBL, lab, studying, exams and thereafter will be taking board exams which also involve the whole day), and thereafter the clinical years, where without accommodations you would normally be expected to be on your feet for long procedures and rounds, walking around large segments of a hospital (including stairs), doing physical exams and procedures which require a certain amount of manual dexterity. And thereafter in residency, you would be expected to work 80 hours/week average (might be more on a given week), with up to 30 hours in a row (unless the IOM rules requiring a "nap after 16 hours" gets passed).
Most med students and all residents can tell you they have had days where they were physically exhausted, having been on their feet nonstop for 20+ hours, having walked many flights of stairs chasing a resident/attending on rounds, to the point that their feet developed blisters even with the best of shoes. And still have to be sharp and good with their hands and head when a patient comes in at the end of that shift. And these are people without physical disabilities. Taking some time to not be vertical simply isn't the norm unless some accommodations are made. I personally would suggest that if too many accommodations are made, you aren't really attending medical school at all -- because a lot of what gets accommodated away, even in terms of keeping your head working long hours, being able to do surgery and other procedures where stamina is necessary, etc, is important to have at least as background, to be a competent physician. You don't train just for what you ultimately will (or can) do. You train broadly and then specialize because the broad background is important. So if you are doing medical school "lite" because that's all you can do, that might make you poorly prepared for what's to come.
So honestly, and bluntly, I don't see how someone who cannot be vertical for long periods of time and has balance and dizziness issues is going to fare well without extremely substantial accommodations, even if the deafness you describe can be accommodated. And even if a med school was willing to revamp their program to accommodate you, (and some might -- once in a while schools do this in the name of diversity or publicity), it would be hard to imagine many residencies would. When you can't man your 30 hour shift, or run to a CODE, or do that lengthy procedure, that means someone else has to -- which can be a problem for programs which already have everybody pushing the 80 hour limit, and will breed resentment of folks who have to pick up the slack in programs where people aren't hitting the cap but certainly would rather go home after THEIR work is done. So few residency programs are going to be willing to go down this road. You should hear the griping by residents when they have to pick up slack for someone who is out sick for ONE day, let alone someone in the program unable to do all their work for the duration. You don't want to be the reason everyone else can't go home to their families on time, even if you find a residency that is willing to create this situation. And from what you describe, you won't be carrying your own weight.
And since med schools really exist to train future practitioners, a lot of med schools will take the unlikeliness of you attaining a residency to heart. Medicine is fairly blunt -- they won't sugar coat it. They will tell you when you are not being realistic. Because the seats are so limited and the demand for physicians is so great, if it appears unlikely that you will succeed in this path, they will probably not let you "try", and use up a precious seat just to see how it goes. So you will have to find a place willing to make the fairly substantial accommodations, and should be aware that at the other end, the options for residency might be even more severely limited.
Honestly, I think from the disability you are describing, you are seriously underestimating the physical demands and long hours required of medicine. This is not a purely cerebral discipline. In fact, I'd say that that's only a very small percentage of medicine. Most is "doing". If you are looking for a cerebral path, a PhD in biomedical sciences is probably a wiser path.
I'm not sure it's worth the six digit tuition debt only to find out at the other end that few to no residencies have the ability to accommodate your conditions. But good luck in whatever path you decide.
