The Match

Every medical professional who reads this title will know exactly what I mean by "The Match," but for those of you who are not in this crazy medicine world, the match refers to the time when fourth year medical students get placed into medical residencies all around the country.

Every spring, fourth year medical students across America receive an email telling them if all their hard work for the last four years has paid off... That is, if a residency program has looked at their application, considered their interview, and decided that they want you! It is an extremely confusing process, so I will not bore you with all the mathematical details (not that I can even begin to understand them myself!). The algorithm of the match is based on the Russell Crowe movie "A Beautiful Mind." Basically, every residency program makes a "rank list" of all the students they want in their program.  They choose many students to interview at their location and rank them from most-wanted to not-so-most-wanted. As such, every fourth year medical student makes a rank list of residency programs from most desired to least desired. In order to place a residency program on that list, the student must have already interviewed there. All of those rank lists are inputed into a program and an algorithm "matches" the students with the residency programs. In March, all of the fourth year students receive an email that says "Matched" or "Not Matched" and it greatly determines the rest of their career. No pressure, right?

Thankfully, the residency match for those applying to Ophthalmology is in January, so we got to find out a little sooner than everyone else.  As we were approaching this crazy time in our lives, Jon and I could feel the tension and stress rising. Every conversation had, every decision made, every dollar spent and every test taken was done with the goal of matching into an ophthalmology residency. Ophthalmology (eye surgery) is an extremely competitive field. It is very difficult to secure a residency spot, especially as a D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) student. The night of the match, Jon would receive an email at 4am telling us the fate of the rest of his career. We went from eating nothing, to eating everything in sight. We would stare blankly at walls and utter one word responses to our children. We laid down next to one another, set our alarms and proceeded to toss and turn throughout the night. I remember seeing every hour on the clock that night. Our children seemed to be understand some of the struggle, though they were only 3 and 1, they were also up most of the night. I was finally asleep when Jon sat straight up saying he got the email. "OPEN IT!" I shouted and he proceeded to shout,

"MATCHED!!" 

The amount of relief we felt was immediate, and life giving. We instantly began texting our family to tell them the good news! The number one question we got from all of them was, "Where?!? Where did you match?" We had to answer, "We don't know!!" Our relief was great, though short lived because we still did not know where we would spend the 4 years of residency! The program that we matched into would be calling us later that morning to let us to know where we would be going. We could have been anywhere from Texas, to New York, to Michigan.

Of course, neither of us slept for the rest of the morning as we were much too excited and nervous. Jon was scheduled to work in the emergency room later that morning, so he went off to work with strict instructions from me to CALL ME when he found out where we will be living! Around 8:30, he called me with the wonderful news! We matched at the Medical College of Georgia, one of our top choices! The range of emotions to follow were relief, gratitude, excitement and anxiety about the years to come.  We are extremely thankful for the program in Augusta, GA and can't wait to get there!

Nearly every Ophthalmology Program requires an intern year prior to the beginning of the residency, so Jon had already applied and interviewed for intern programs. We found out in March 2018 (In much the same fashion) where we would live for the one year prior to the start of residency in fall of 2019. At the time of this blog, we are currently completing our 1 year internship or transitional year in Visalia, CA.

Whenever I tell people about the craziness of this journey, I always say, "Go hug your doctor." They have been through so much to get where they are... Helping and serving as many people along the way. To say that I am proud of Jon is an understatement! We cannot wait to see where this journey continues to bring us! In the meantime, we are enjoying the sunshine of California and looking forward to the day when we get to move to Georgia.

I recently wrote a poem based on "The Night Before Christmas" to depict just a little of the craziness that ensues on a night like "The Match." Ha!

The Night Before the Match

It was the night before the Match and stress did abound,

The student clutched his phone and in bed rolled around.

The rank lists were entered on ERAS with care,

in hopes to match in residency and change the face of healthcare.

The students were all nestled snug in their beds,

while visions of ivy league all danced in their heads.

When all of a sudden he sat straight up,

what if he failed? He had no back-up!

Away to his laptop he tore like a flash,

What if his wifi happened to crash?

When, what to his wondering eyes did appear,

The clock turned 4 and the moment was near.

His heart could be heard across the room he was sure,

He head would burst from all this, it was too much to endure!

His eyes dropped down to to the dreaded email that night,

And immediately he felt his heart take flight.

For before his very eyes the email did say,

You've "Matched!" Today is your big day!

"I've matched! I've matched!" He shouted with glee!

I'm going to be a licensed physician, "Yippee!!"

And just as he took in a deep breath of fresh air,

it hit him like a ton of bricks, "I've Matched... BUT WHERE?!"

By Rachelle Shader