Was Ill For Years with Undiagnosed Disease...Should I Discuss In my Statement?

[romealone]

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hi guys
I have a question. Unfortunately I was ill for most of my 20's with a disease that no one could diagnose. However over a year ago I was finally diagnosed with a rare infectious disease (Ehrlichiosis), and successfully treated.

When I was ill I became very interested in medicine (from all the research I conducted trying to figure out what was wrong with me), and promised myself if I ever was diagnosed and cured, I would become a physician.

I am keeping that promise to myself and am nearly finished with my applications (I know Im late..its a long story). Anyhow, my personal statement is largely about my illness and how it brought me to the decision to become a physician. I was wondering if you guys could read my statment and let me know what you think.
I also would like to know if there are any reasons which Im not considering for why I may NOT want to discuss the fact that I was ill for so long.
Thanks so much-Rome


Personal Statement

 

[Dianyla]

If this experience is part of your answer to "Why Medicine?" then I think it's fine to include.

I'd also advise that you edit out your PS from the post above before someone plagiarizes it.

 

[romealone]

If this experience is part of your answer to "Why Medicine?" then I think it's fine to include.

I'd also advise that you edit out your PS from the post above before someone plagiarizes it.

Thanks for the response. And thanks for the advice to remove my actual Personal Statment. I just removed it...but it never occured to me that someone would actually plagerize something like that. Too bad. Oh well. thanks-Rome

 

[alwaysaangel]

In general something like that which originally brought you to medicine can be an intro paragraph, but it shouldn't take up the entire personal statement.

There are too many other things that need to be covered: what characteristics about you will make you a good physician, why you think you will succeed in medical school, and other reasons that you want medicine as your future career.

I didn't see your personal statement but I think mentioning like you did here that you had x illness and y is what happened to you and it made you want to become a physician for one paragraph is good. Beyond that it will probably be excessive and will take up space where you need to cover other things.

 

[45408]

Short answer: no.

 

[chman]

I think that it could work out if worded correctly. I think you need to be careful not to make it into a sob story, and also not too generic, because I assume illness is a topic that is often covered.

 

[LizzyM]

My one concern with the "my illness" PS is that it seems self-absorbed. We are not admitting interesting patients. We are looking for bright, interesting people who want to serve others as physicians. Would you be interested in treating people who have many complalints but no specific diagnosis?

While you may consider yourself more understanding from the patient's point of view have you shadowed physicians (not those who have treated you) who can give you the doc's eye view of medical practice.

Don't romanticize it. You won't always be the hero and some days you'll be the goat.

 

[wolverinepwns]

if it made you who you are today and had any part in why you want to go to medicine then it would naive of you not to!

 

[wanderer]

My one concern with the "my illness" PS is that it seems self-absorbed. We are not admitting interesting patients. We are looking for bright, interesting people who want to serve others as physicians. Would you be interested in treating people who have many complalints but no specific diagnosis?

While you may consider yourself more understanding from the patient's point of view have you shadowed physicians (not those who have treated you) who can give you the doc's eye view of medical practice.

Don't romanticize it. You won't always be the hero and some days you'll be the goat.

I did kind of get this feeling when reading the essay (before it was edited out). I didn't count, but if there are two many "I"s, "my"s and so on, it just doesn't seem right.
Another thing I noticed was that the OP only glanced over things like shadowing/teaching. I think those things should be in somewhat more depth. If they can be tied in/connected with what you experienced from your own doctors, that would be best, imo.

 

[45408]

if it made you who you are today and had any part in why you want to go to medicine then it would naive of you not to!

This is overly idealistic. There are plenty of things that aren't worth putting into your PS that "made you who you are."

 

[wristbandMD]

My one concern with the "my illness" PS is that it seems self-absorbed.

Would this mean that any type of hardship (illness, abuse as a child, financial hardship, etc) would be self-absorbed?

What if you were to write something like this?:
1) I received an injury to my spinal cord, which affected my nervous system and resulted in severe sciatic pain.
2) I researched the condition and became interested in the nervous system
3) I majored in neurobiology because of it. (write about academics)
4) I shadowed a neurologist (write about ECs)
5) I have a desire to become a neurologist (write about goals)

Obviously a very brief outline, but the idea is there...Are essays that follow this type of outline self-absorbed? What other problems could arise?

 

[cyclohexanol]

hi guys
I have a question. Unfortunately I was ill for most of my 20's with a disease that no one could diagnose. However over a year ago I was finally diagnosed with a rare infectious disease (Ehrlichiosis), and successfully treated.

When I was ill I became very interested in medicine (from all the research I conducted trying to figure out what was wrong with me), and promised myself if I ever was diagnosed and cured, I would become a physician.

I am keeping that promise to myself and am nearly finished with my applications (I know Im late..its a long story). Anyhow, my personal statement is largely about my illness and how it brought me to the decision to become a physician. I was wondering if you guys could read my statment and let me know what you think.
I also would like to know if there are any reasons which Im not considering for why I may NOT want to discuss the fact that I was ill for so long.
Thanks so much-Rome


Personal Statement

Your story sounds like my story, except I didn't have ehrlichiosis. It was a couple long, life-changing years, so yeah it was important to me and I talked about it. I switched careers because of what happened, I think it would have been stupid not to mention it. In my PS, I only mentioned my background in the context of how what happened caused me to become interested in medicine and driven to become a physician. At most, I probably devoted about 3-5 sentences to that. If you think its important, I'd talk about it, but just be careful how you approach the subject and don't make it your whole PS.

good luck!

 

[LizzyM]

Would this mean that any type of hardship (illness, abuse as a child, financial hardship, etc) would be self-absorbed?

What if you were to write something like this?:
1) I received an injury to my spinal cord, which affected my nervous system and resulted in severe sciatic pain.
2) I researched the condition and became interested in the nervous system
3) I majored in neurobiology because of it. (write about academics)
4) I shadowed a neurologist (write about ECs)
5) I have a desire to become a neurologist (write about goals)

Obviously a very brief outline, but the idea is there...Are essays that follow this type of outline self-absorbed? What other problems could arise?

The only concern I have with this outline is drilling down to selecting a specialty based on exposure to neurologists in clinical and shadowing experiences. Adcom members I've served with see this as a huge red flag as it suggests to them someone who is interested only in a specific subset of the material covered in medical school.