Match Day

It's been about a year now since Aric completed his 4th year of Medical school so I thought I would finally get around to the story of "Match Day"

Aric was trying to match in Orthopedic surgery and had 5 interviews scheduled (not nearly as many as we would have liked). The interviews were at UVA, Greenville SC, Charleston SC, Albany NY, and Denver CO. We wanted to stay at UVA for the sake of the kids, yet we knew that Aric wasn't going to be high on UVa's list. Aric hadn't been set on Orthopedics from the beginning and didn't have any research in the field.

One thing that was important to both of us was to end up somewhere that we could buy a house and finally get out of our cramped 3 bedroom apartment. I would often find Aric and the kids huddled around the computer looking at puppies online (pets are not allowed in family housing). One afternoon I was walking around the track at a nearby elementary school while Killian had soccer practice. The track had little off shoot trails every 20 yards or so that went into the surrounding neighborhood. I randomly took one of these paths and walked into a cute little culdesac, it was perfect. Beautiful houses with manicured lawns, front porches, bicycles and trikes

littering the driveways, the exact type of neighborhood I wanted my family to live.  I actually got a little emotional and said a little prayer in my head, I asked God to be with us in the match, be with the kids that the move (which I assumed was inevitable) wouldn't be to hard on them, and that wherever we ended up that we would be able to find a house.

Match week starts on a Monday, that's when all the 4th year students receive an email letting them know if they matched at one of their prospective programs. I hadn't put a lot of thought into not matching, I thought worst case scenario would be matching at our #5 ranked program which was MUSC in Charleston (a lovely place to visit but the housing market is pricey).  When Aric got the email that he hadn't matched we went into full blown panic mode. What now? The idea of having to take a year off and re-enter the match was not an option for us. We immediately went to meet with the Dean who was very helpful in easing our minds and it was at that meeting that we decided Anesthesia was the best option. That day Aric was offered a one year intern spot at UVa, and a couple months after that he was offered a spot with the UVa Anesthesia dept. No re-interviewing, no re-matching, no taking a year off!

So fast forward one year and here we are. Aric is almost done with his intern year, we love Virginia and are so happy we get to call it home for four more years. The best part is we were finally able to become homeowners again. In October we bought a house that just happens to be in the very same culdesac that prompted a little prayer months before.

How we began this journey,

White Coat Ceremony 2008

What! a new post?

Not really, I just got tired of seeing "last update 1 year ago"

Suckers!

All I want for Christmas

Killian lost both of his front teeth last week. They were both wiggly, but after bumping his mouth on Britton's knee one started bleeding. He held a tissue and twisted the first one out himself without even realizing it. Aric helped him out with the second tooth, he just grabbed the tooth and yank! My toothless boy! We had fun with it and asked him to repeat words with as many s's and th's as we could think of. I found out later that he even ran to a couple of our friends/neighbors to share the good news. He was so excited for the tooth fairy he could hardly sleep in fact he woke up and checked under his pillow at 11:30 and the tooth fairy had already come (I guess she was anxious as well!)

A Different View

Forty Eight

I bought the kids some silly bands at the store yesterday, Killian noticed there was writing on the back of one of the packages. He turned it over and said "hmm forty-eight". Then I heard him say quietly in a pondering voice "or eighty-chair."

Eighty Chair

Broken Arm...again

So Jayden broke his arm last Wednesday at the local Skate Park. I got a call from him that he broke it and they were headed to the Emergency Room. He was with his friend Josh who drives so no ambulance needed, they were already in a room when I got there. I was not prepared for what I saw next, his right arm bent at a 90 degree angle halfway between his elbow and wrist, ugh! I had to look away to compose myself. I had in my mind what I was expecting to see based on Jayden's broken arm of 2009, and this was nowhere near what I was expecting. We got home just before midnight, went to bed at 1am, then were woken by a phone call at 2:15am. They wanted him back to be operated on at 5am. Aric had to go in anyways for the rotation he was on so he took Jayden and I stayed behind to get the twins on the bus. I met him at the hospital just after 7am and an hour later we got the call that Jayden was out of surgery and everything went well. While we were waiting for Jayden's anesthesia to wear off so he could be discharged Aric put together a power point with all of the x rays (before during and after surgery). When we got home we added all the iphone pics that we both had.

Jayden bbffxFYI the surgery picture is NOT Jayden, it is the procedure they originally thought the would be doing but they were able to do the less invasive rod through the bone. 

View more presentations from Melissa Elmer

Jayden is doing much better he has a green cast on, but he has to keep it in a sling at all times. Jayden's biggest concern right now is how this is going to affect his snowboarding season. I guess we will find out on the 21st (his next follow up appointment). I for one would be happy if he just keeps his feet planted on the ground for a while! :)

Holy Cow! I think I just created a blog. I have no idea what I am doing and it doesn't really matter since nobody knows I just created a blog. Does this mean I will have to keep updating, and taking pictures, and posting, and sharing, and customizing,.... oy vey what did I get myself into! To be continued....or not. ;)