Getting into Medical School, aka Holy of Holies (the F-1 version)

My adventures as an international student trying to get into a US medical school as a prestigious MSI student!

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Location: East Coast, United States

I am a 22 yr old Foreign lady trying to get into an American med school. The journey has been "rough" to say the least. So join the band wagon and let's see if they think I'm good enough to become a doctor. I hope my story encourages someone, maybe you. Not necessarily to become a doctor, but just to follow your dream. Leave your comments as you read...I thrive on feedback. And if this is your first time here, catch up on what you missed, cus every post IS important...well almost all. So forget that board meeting(at your own risk) or skip that class (again at your own risk) and lose yourself in my archives. REMEMBER: "If it aint ROUGH, it aint RIGHT" - Richard Hamilton, Detroit Pistons Guard

Monday, August 21, 2006

"Whatever can go wrong, will DEFINITELY go wrong"

...aka DEVIL is a freaking LIAR

OK it's been quite a minute but you will have to bear with me, some hardcore stuff been going down lately. I turned in one of my secondaries (Boston) on Friday, slowly but surely, I'm getting them in. I still can't get over the fact that all I had to do was walk into our office supply room and get free Fedex materials to mail my stuff out. Maybe that's not a big deal to you but believe me every little bit counts, if not I would have been trying to figure out what bus will get me to the fedex office, how to get there before 5pm, and numerous other details. Thank GOD for little mercies.

And the big ones too, like good health. Cliche...but very true. The last few weeks have been CRAZY. At the end of this post, all I need you to do is take away a few important lessons.

I woke up two Mondays ago, hoping the week will fly by as fast as all the others. I still couldn't believe it was already August, felt like yesterday I was just the new kid on the block at work and now here I was feeling I had been there for 20+ years. Anyways I was doing the daily clean up routine in the shower and that's when I noticed some little white spots on my inner lip. I was supposed to stop by the hospital that day anyways to get some blood tests done before I started volunteering so I was going to ask then. But I couldn't help but go to the nearby pharmacy before my hospital appointment. I asked the pharmacist what exactly it was...she looked at me like I had the plague and told me she had no clue, I should go see a doctor. Alarm one went off in my head. Tried to hit snooze, but the button was stuck.

I counted every second till my appointment at the hospital. Finally came, I asked the doctor/technician, I really don't know what he was, other than he was authorized to draw blood. He had to know something. He waved me off and said that every once in a while the mouth went on its own home remodelling project and decided to shed and replace all its old cells. Understandable enough. Then came the itching and a few rashes.

This probably started on Tuesday But nothing much else happened over that day, the white spots disappeared, but the itch continued. I was beginning to think they were just insect bites or maybe I just needed to wash those sheets. (NOTE TO SELF: Can't put off doing that laundry any longer, just 5 bucks, 5 bucks!). But nothing much else happened over that day, the white spots disappeared, but the itch continued.

Then came the sore throat on Thursday. At this point I was no longer comforted by Dr.Who's HGTV theory. I decided to GOOGLE my symptoms. Wrong move people...WRONG MOVE! All kind of crazy pictures, diseases I had never heard of in my life and some that were recently becoming all too familiar. Alarm 2, 3 and 4 went off simultaneously. But I had to keep calm, I still had to show up to work and perform, regardless of how "old faithful" was feeling, still too early to take that sick day. I decided to go back and talk to Dr.Who, to let him know that his theory was tanking fast and I needed a different explanation for the symptoms. Why not go to a certified physician this time? Well, let's just say Health Insurance doesn't grow on trees.

Unfortunately, he was busy so I had to talk to another lady who was apparently having a bad day. She shooed me off like I was some housefly and told me to get over myself that it was probably just some virus. Can a girl not just want to confirm some symptoms? Things just seemed to get worse, I got a fever, swollen lymph nodes, severe just-hiked-through-the-sahara dehydration and flu symptoms. I found a free community health care service. Here they did some tests, everything was thankfully negative, yes THAT TEST too, but they said to come back and show them the white spots if they come back.

To stop myself from going completely crazy, I've tried to stop diagnosing myself online and just see a professional. I finally gave in and purchased health insurance yesterday. Gone are the college days of playing hide and seek with the international office trying to get by without paying for insurance we never used. So I will be going back to the clinic tomorrow trying to find out what exactly is going on. It probably really is some virus but better be safe than sorry, I know my GOD won't let me down. Needless to say "Fight-or-Flight" has successfully kicked my applications to the back burner's back burner till further notice.

So what are those lessons you need to remember?
- GOOGLE is good for a lot of things, but CERTAINLY not for everything
- HEALTH really is WEALTH
- Murphy's darn Law holds true in all situations, so don't try to avoid it, just make necessary accomodations.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry o....it will be over soon in JESUS name. Health and financial worries shall soon become a thing of the past...some earlier than others but by the GRACE OF GOD it shall be well. Where doctors can't figure out what's wrong, Divine Healing shall be yours (AMEN)

August 22, 2006 12:45 AM  
Blogger ABBEY said...

amen oh..thank u

August 22, 2006 7:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

lol, tht was a good one. i thot u'll have learned from me being the queen of serching google for symptoms and causes and diagnosing myself, then going to see the doctor with mam, i thnk i figured it all out just give me some drugs tht will make me feel better. If na naija i dey i for don go pharmacy buy my med then everything gets better or maybe its a placebo effect. who knows, it sha worked :). just keep ur cool, theres nothing thts happening to u thts not common to woman. u'll survive it. viral infections go by themselves too.

August 23, 2006 12:10 PM  
Blogger ABBEY said...

Yeah I shd no better than embarking on a self diagnosis project, like they say...curosity kills the cat.

Now they're even saying its allergies...don't know anymore, I just want to be healthy!

August 23, 2006 12:13 PM  

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