Getting sick as a medical student

[poer]

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if you get severely sick as a medical student, but are able to get better and recover, how does that impact residency?

 

[Winged Scapula]

if you get severely sick as a medical student, but are able to get better and recover, how does that impact residency?

It depends.

Depends on:

1) whether there are any long-term sequelae from the illness
2) whether any sequelae impact your ability to perform the duties of residency and practice
3) whether your illness impacted your Step 1 scores, grades, etc.
4) what field you are going into

There have been plenty of medical students with chronic or acute illnesses that have been able to parlay that into competitive residencies and match well. However, all of them (that I know) had little to no long term sequelae, recovered sufficiently to do well on USMLEs, were open about the illness and what, if any, concessions they needed.

 

[poer]

could you answer the following then?
1. What kinds of conditions did they have?
2. What if it impacted your performance in a year that was not related to medical school?
3. what if it affected your performance in a temporary fashion mostly due to a delay in diagnosis?

 

[Winged Scapula]

could you answer the following then?
1. What kinds of conditions did they have?

Ok. I'm not sure how that is relevant to *you* but one of them had new onset Type 1 Diabetes, another had a traumatic injury with femur fracture, another had Ulcerative Colitis, another with Crohns, one with Hodgkins, and a few with major depressive disorders.

2. What if it impacted your performance in a year that was not related to medical school?

I'm not sure what that means. You asked about getting sick as a medical student. What year of medical school is not related to medical school? If you are a pre-med asking this question, then it is better placed in the Pre-Allo forum.

3. what if it affected your performance in a temporary fashion mostly due to a delay in diagnosis?

Again, I'm not sure how that is relevant.

What matters is how you recovered, regardless of how the problem was found, or treated, or when it was found and treated. No one cares about the how and the why; what they care about is how you learned from it, recovered and are you able to do your job today. Do not try and use an illness to make up for application deficiences. This is especially the case with chronic diseases; it will only make others wonder if the "temporary" performance issues are really temporary IMHO.

PS...you do not need to PM me to ask me (or anyone else) to respond to your queries (especially less than 4 hours since the last reply). We are all busy students, residents, fellows and attendings who volunteer our time here and do not monitor SDN 24/7. Be patient and answers will come to almost all posts. 🙂

 

[eforest]

if you get severely sick as a medical student, but are able to get better and recover, how does that impact residency?

Depends- I struggle with bipolar disorder and had to take time off from medical school. This posed a problem when applying for residency- at interviews I was asked what I took time off for. I was honest but vague, mentioning that I'd had mental health issues. I did match at my top choice- but I went to a top 10 medical school and was applying in a non competitive field at non competitive places.

Now that I'm an intern my illness does pose challenges. I have to be careful when on 24 hour call- the medications that I take at night make me a little groggy. So when I'm overnight, I take smaller doses and space them out. Because of my illness, I specifically chose programs with night float systems to minimize 24 hour call. Of course, we still have them here, but not often. And, when I'm on night float, it's really important that I keep a regular schedule. So I don't nap while at the hospital and make sure to get 8 hours of sleep at home during the day.

You have to figure out what your limitations are and how best to cope.

 

[lipomas]

These questions are too vague, as to be rendered meaningless.

If you miss a year of med school because you broke your spine and needed to be immobilized for 6 months but have now fully recovered, then no, it will not impact your residency.

If you had a stroke and a lengthy recovery and are now close to normal but still cognitively iffy, then yes, it will impact your residency.

Almost every word in your question is vague and needs to be amplified.

"Severely sick" - is that temporary? A serious illness that you recovered from but still have sequallae that interfere with your life in some way? Can you still take call? Can you stand for more than 2 hours? Or are you still severely sick but now you can control it better but still are limited?

"Able to get better and recover" - how much did you recover? What was affected? Was this a mental illness? A severe physical trauma? A systemic illness with or without sequallae?

"impact residency" - Impact in what way? What residency? If it's a physical problem then it will have more of an impact on physically demanding residencies. If it's a mental problem it could have an impact on any residency. If it's a drug problem some specialties will be more worried than others. And what do you mean by impact? Hard to get into? Hard to complete? Hard to deal with because you will need special help?

I know you are intentionally being vague because you want someone to tell you it is going to be allright, but it isn't that simple. Unless your problem is something incredibly rare, no one is going to know who you are so out with it!

Most "severely sick" med students either had a severe mental illness, a drug problem, or cancer. And most can deal with it and move on but not all can. If you are at all worried take more time off to figure it out. If it turns out you can handle it then good, it will make you a better doctor.

 

[Buzz Me]

I think the OP is trying to present his/her own case...without giving specifics.

Or asking for medical advice.