Weekly Dad Post

Hi everybody! Hopefully this will be a weekly tradition for me. In this week's edition, I would like to talk about 1) a medical students perspective on the Expectant Motherhood Book that Roo's mom has been reading, and 2) update you all on where Roo is going to be born. 1) As you may or may not know, I am almost finished with my clinical rotations in medical school. I finished my OB/GYN rotation 4 weeks ago, that means I still remember a few things about it! If it were 4 months ago, all bets are off. As someone who knows slightly more than the average person about prenatal care, I can without a doubt tell you that the advice written in Expectant Motherhood is completely accurate. I can't tell you how many times I told a pregnant patient that the most important thing she can do is look good. More importantly, we all know nothing bad can come from smoking a pack and half of cigarettes a day. I remember patient TK saying, "Jeremy, I smoke 10 cigarettes a day. I've heard its bad, can you help me quit to protect my baby." I responded, "TK, obviously you don't read the literature because I am going to write you a prescription for a pack and half of smokes per day." In a nutshell, the medical community of 2007 fully endorse the Expectant Motherhood book. What was good in the 50s is good today, because science and medicine really haven't advanced all that much :) 2) This past Wednesday my rank order for residency became final. After I finish this year, I will begin a residency in pediatrics. To do that, I applied to programs and they interviewed me. After the interview process, I ranked the programs I interviewed at from 1 to 10, I applied to 10 programs. That list was finalized on Wednesday. Now all the programs I interviewed at will rank me and a program will try to "match" me to the highest program that I ranked that also ranked me high. On March 12, we will find out if I "matched." It won't tell me where yet, but it will let me know if I did. If for some unknown reason I did not match, my school and I will look for a program that did not fill all its positions and try to get me in there. That is a worst case scenario and is more common for more competitive programs like derm or ophthalmology etc. Then on March 15, there is a party at school where they draw an envelope with your name on it which tells you where you matched. So sometime between 1130-2PM on March 15 we will know where Roo will be born. For those who don't know, the potential destinations are (in no particular order): Richmond, Charlottesville, Winston-Salem, New Haven, Hartford, Boston, Springfield, or Worcester.