Some help,advice or opnions please!

[medguy2606]

Hey everyone, I just signed up here and am loving it(I've been a long time lurker on the boards) I have a question for anyone willing to help me out but first I will give some background info about myself...I barely graduated high school partially because of medical reasons and the other part due to lack of motivation ( I have cystic fibrosis so I missed a lot of school and then became unmotivated when I fell behind but scraped by and managed to graduate) after I graduated I just worked for a while but never felt I had the right academic background to go after a collegic degree let alone ever become my dream of being a physician. I still wanted to enter the health field very badly so I go into a year long LPN program and became a practical nurse and really learned how to really study and become a very proficient student, from there I got my RN at another program and now I registered for the Fall of 2009 at the University of Pennsylvania BSN program!!! I have really worked my butt off and my grades have not fallen less than an A in any course and my current GPA is a 3.9 and I have a very high science GPA as well.(I also took the SAT's last year and did very well.) I never thought I would have the ability to get into an Ivy League let alone go to college but now that I have come so far I wish to try to continue my dreams after my BSN to become a physician. my question to you guys is despite my odd background would I ever be elligble to get into a DO/MD school?

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[DrMidlife]

Cystic fibrosis is a tough, tough sell for getting into med school. I'm very sorry to hear that you have this condition. There's no way to say this delicately, but there are physicians between you and a med school acceptance, and they certainly know CF prognosis. And a lot of people have read Atul Gawande's "Better" (relevant excerpt on CF: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/12/06/041206fa_fact).

Starting from a BSN, you have a minimum of another year of med school prereqs, and probably an MCAT/apply gap year, then 4 years of med school, then a minimum of 3 years of residency. That's at least 8 years of high stress, heavy debt, and little sleep.

If I were in your shoes, and absolutely hellbent to be a physician, I'd move to wherever LeRoy Matthews is, and submit to his protocol, so that I could claim the maximum life expectancy. And from my shoes, I would hope that you take the max life expectancy, and bail on med school. It's not worth it.

Best of luck to you.