I’m on a train back from Philadelphia after completing
interview #5 for fellowship in gynecology oncology at UPenn.
It’s hard to believe I’ve already got 5 under my belt and
how much further I have to go. I have been to UW, Hopkins, Duke and UNC and
they are all so different and all strong for their own reasons. Along the way I’ve
made friends – friends that will turn into lifelong colleagues because this field
is actually incredibly small. These people that I’m interviewing with are going
to be people I will see for the rest of my careers. And just thinking of that
is really sort of crazy to absorb.
In this time that I’ve been working on finding the best
place for fellowship our Addie has grown and changed tremendously.
She’s now walking everywhere on her own, eating up a storm
(and also developing a food preference that generally means she’ll eat only white/yellow
things like bread, rice, corn or a variety of dairy products).
After my interview at UW I took a red-eye flight from Seattle
to Boston and met Tom and Adler where we subsequently drove up to New Hampshire
for the New England Association of Gynecology Oncology conference.
It was held at the Omni Mt. Washington resort which was
GORGEOUS.
Tom and I couldn’t dream of paying the kind of prices it is
to stay at a place like that (and only for one night) so we went a different
route and stayed in a cabin just down the road.
This cabin was posted on air bnb and was definitely larger
in the photos than in real life!
But it fit the bill for our small family
We got to fit in a hike to the same spot we had gone with
Chi, Karen and Ali in the winter (when we learned our lessons about how to
dress our baby/toddler when hiking in the winter!). It was quite a different
view during the summer. But instead of cold weather, we instead battled bugs and
poor Tom got eaten alive while we were up there…
Adler loved her time in the cabin -including her time learning
how to use a broom (totally voluntarily!)
The next day I presented my research project while Tom and
Adler played in the pool.
I presented my work on whether or not we should be routinely
taking biopsies of the lymph nodes of patients that have a diagnosis called EIN
which is a pre-cancerous lesion of the uterus. I was in a sort of
post-interivew/hike/red-eye flight haze, but I was awarded the “best clinical
research” award of the meeting! A huge honor that happened to also come with a
fairly substantial financial award! We celebrated with pizza on the patio while
Adler dined on her favorite – pouches of applesauce!
Next up was Father’s Day weekend. I, sadly, had to work a 24
hour call shift. But my co-residents spoiled me with my favorites – Knead doughnuts!
And Tom and Adler made a trip to the hospital with all of my favorite things 😊
Post-call we dined at a taco restaurant in town to celebrate
Tom being an incredibly amazing father!
After that trip we got officially promoted to chief
residents and that meant that we had the opportunity to roast the outgoing chief
residents – a night where we all pretend to be stand-up comedians and tell
jokes about the graduating residents. I participated in a big role this time around
since I look a lot like our program director, Dayna Burrell, and am frequently mistaken
for her in the hospital (and vice versa). So, here I am “dressed” as Dayna
(which is basically just my work attire), next to my classmate Nick who dressed
up as our associate program director, Bridget who is 32+weeks pregnant 😊
I missed graduation celebrations at Brown last weekend for
my interview at Johns Hopkins but my class got to say a proper goodbye to the
outgoing chief class and to Bridget (the one nick was dressed as) who is moving
to Northwestern University with her soon-to-be baby that I’m so bummed I won’t
get to meet!
And, apparently I should go out of town on graduation more often because I won two awards in my absence :). The best laparoscopic surgery resident and the Society of Gynecology Oncology (SGO) Outstanding Resident award.
It felt strangely familiar to be back on the Hopkins campus
after interviewing there for residency (after all I did rank it in my top 3
programs)
The history of the hospital still amazes me and gives me
goose bumps
I think with all of my absences from home with interviews, I
think that Adler is posting a protest at bedtime. She no longer goes down like
an angel like she used to. But she continues to be adorable, especially during
water play at school
I’m starting to meet the same faces along the trail and we
are sharing flights, Ubers, and train rides together
Duke and UNC allowed me to get in some time in the beautiful
state of North Carolina. I had never been but I fully appreciated all the green
space and the rocking chairs on front porches
The Duke campus was incredibly beautiful, including the duke
chapel.
It was occupied by a wedding the first time I tried to enter and the second
time was on my tour of the campus by the program director who brought our tour group
in DURING MASS.
It was crazy, but we all had a great time trying to play it off
like it was totally normal and OK to walk into mass in our suits with name tags
on…
Now I’m returning from Philly. Thanks to Tom’s travels for
work last year he had a lot of extra hotel points built up and has elite status
and therefore I have been upgraded to a suite for almost all of my trips. I can’t
believe how lucky I am and how DIFFERENT this interview trail experience has
been compared to sleeping on couches of near strangers last time.
I'm so glad that I am not interviewing in NYC. This is about as close to the city as I want to be (a view I enjoyed watching from the train):
I get a little break from the trail for the 4th
of July before heading to Colorado on 7/11. I’m already exhausted with so many
more to go, but it truly is exciting (and nerve wracking) to try to examine and
discover what my future holds.
For now, I’m going to snuggle into my train seat and take a
much needed nap after a LONG day of interviews (with a record number of ELEVEN back-to-back
interviews). 
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