Hi, Everyone,
I've been away for a while now. Some of you might still remember me. I'm a 37 y/o non-trad with a background in IT/management (along with some other eclectic things thrown in), now just two weeks shy of 38 and four weeks from graduating med school. I went back to school for a post-bacc close to ten years s/p college graduation (graduated in 1996) with a less than desirable academic background (had D's in major classes, a lot of W's, and changed my major three times) and eventually got accepted to and attended KCUMB-COM (c/o 2011) as an HPSP student in the USAF (marching in 105 degree weather in COT at 37 was interesting). As an interesting aside, I took the pencil and paper MCAT for the first time back in the early '90's. Anyway, I already posted on the "
Pros and Cons of Going to Med School as a Nontrad" thread, but wanted to also post an update here as well.
I did well in medical school and on my boards, so I felt that a lot of doors were open for me in terms of choice of specialty, and age was NEVER an issue for me in medical school, during the pre-clinical and clinical years (actually, there were folks much older than me). (Okay, maybe, I felt a bit less resilient and had an arguably harder time bouncing back from those all-nighters, etc., than my much younger colleagues.) Yes, folks, trust me, while there is some predictability from past MCAT/Undergrad GPA performance, nothing beats the good, old-fashioned leg-work you put in during your medical school years. That's by far the best determining factor on your success. Don't rest on your laurels or let your past limit/define you.
Even though I started out thinking I'd do primary care, I found myself entertaining other specialties, like many others. For a while, I entertained general surgery. I loved being able to make rapid interventions and working with my hands, but the long, grueling hours and residency didn't appeal to me at the end. I liked OB/GYN for similar reasons, plus it had a primary care element, but did not fancy the unpredictability and being on-call for deliveries all the time. I almost thought I'd do EM, but then I realized that it was the variety and follow-up that I wanted, and EM didn't have much follow-up/long-term management. At times, it was difficult separating the people I was working with from the actual work itself. At last, I fell in love with FM because it had the best balance of everything I wanted in terms of variety, balance between clinic and hospital work, procedures, ability to OB/GYN, and long-term follow-up, and I came full circle.
On December 15th, 2011, I matched at an awesome combined military/civilian FM residency and will be starting June of this year. It was my number one choice! I feel incredibly happy and lucky, and I really couldn't ask for more. The civilian side is at a major university hospital well-known for primary care, with an in-patient FP ward.
Now, I'm just a month or two away from wearing the coveted "long white coat" and being called "doctor." I have the normal trepidation that almost everyone feels at this stage, but I am also very excited. It's been an interesting challenge and I'm so glad that I took the leap of faith 5-6 years ago to go back to school and pursue medicine. Truth be told, it seems like only yesterday that I was teaching Yoga/Martial Arts in SoCal and carrying bags as a bellman, when going back to school to pursue medicine was just a budding idea. It all flew by so very quickly. Now, I am sitting here filling out my TEP and residency paperwork. Did I step into a time warp, LOL?
Anyway, just a few words of encouragement to those who are older and think it's too late to start a career in medicine: If your heart is into it and you are willing to do the work, you can do it. And, yes, you can overcome past academic difficulties and be successful in your pursuit of medicine.
Good luck, non-trad pre-meds and med students! And, congrats to all those who matched.
