The Terminal

(6-24-06)

I'm just killing some time in Heathrow waiting for my fligt to leave for Budapest, so I thought I'd take a minute to update my traVel log. Every adventure has to have a few unexpected twists in order to be interesting, and in my case this came in the form of both my laptop and my compass watch losing battery power before I left the airport in Minneapolis. As a result, the next several days became quite a challenge without internet access or navigational capabilities, not to mention having to figure out what time of day it was with my jet-lagged body only confusing the issue. Fortunately, the department of surgery had done an outstanding job making preparations for my arrival. After reassuring the customs agent that I was cool to enter the country for six months and occasionally cut open human beings in England, I met up with Steven (my driver) and headed for Oxford. I was delighted to see signs for "Slough" as we made our way toward M40, but was told that I was going to have to make it a seperate trip if I was going to meet up with David Brent and Gareth Keenan. I was surprised upon arriving at the flat at how small a 2 bedroom apartment can be.

At first finding my way around the city was quite a challenge. It took me 5 attempts at entering my car from the left side before I remembered that the steering wheel was on the opposite side. Although they have been few in number, my experiences with the roundabouts have involved 1 or 2 "look kids, Big Ben, Parliment" episodes.

I spent most of Thursday traveling to London in order to process my medical license at the GMC. After verifying that all of my paperwork was in order, I breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing that I could now spend the next week relaxing before starting work on July 3. Yesterday morning I made a visit to the JR to meet up with my teammates on the UGI service. Seems like a great group of people, and I look forward to getting started.

The Lake Home

Today is the day. In about 4 hours I will be getting on an airplane and leaving the country, not to return for over 6 months. In order to say goodbye to the USA and kick off my journey, I decided to spend the weekend in the place my mother once described as her favorite destination of everywhere she had traveled in the entire world: Crosslake, MN.

The weekend started out like a typical Griswold family vacation, with flights getting delayed due to bad weather and bags getting lost. We were finally able to sort through all the travel mishaps, however, and by 2 am I was pulling in to the cabin with my brother-in-law, Dave, and my friend, Coach. After getting a few hours sleep, I wandered up to the kitchen where the activity was already starting. Much to my surprise, I quickly learned that my sister, Laura, had somehow managed to ditch out on her family responsibilities and jury duties in Oakland to join us for the weekend! For someone who is not easily taken by surprise, it was a truly joyful moment. There are not very many opportunities when the entire Joyce clan gets the whole crew together, and although there was still a major void with the absence of Chubbs (my other brother-in-law), having Laura there was analogous to Clemens being back with the 'stros.

We spent most of Saturday morning putting in the dock, which went pretty quickly with all the help. In addition to my family and Coach, we also got to spend the weekend with Nick and his sister, Sara, as well as Anna (Daniel's friend). By the time evening rolled around, the weather had cleared up and the water was absolutely perfect for waterskiing. After taking a few runs, we secured on the barefoot boom and took turns working off the short rope. By the time we finished, it had been pitch dark outside for at least an hour. The next morning we went to Drive-in church, where amazingly they were having the yearly tradition of "bless the animals" day. After securing Stan's salvation, we went home and played some hoops, hit the mini-golf course (an annual Joyce tradition in which the loser is required to purchase a douche), and went back to the lake house for a steak dinner. Monday provided another evening of picture-perfect conditions on the lake. Unfortunately it was a day of failures as well: the Joyce kids were unsuccessful in getting up behind the boat (all 5 at once) after yours truly suffered a debilitating Charlie Horse (KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS THAT HURTS!!!). I also missed after 3 attempts at doing a deep water barefoot start. Rubbing salt in my wounds, Daniel nailed his on the first try.

By Tuesday morning, we were back in the Twin Cities and I was making preparations to leave the country. Stay tuned for the journey abroad...

The Match

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you're doing and listen. Tomorrow at 12:00 p.m., fourth year surgical residents all across the world will be opening an envelope that contains inside the location of where they will be spending the next 2-3 years of their lives. That’s right, it’s Match Day 2006 for Thoracic Surgeons!!! So it breaks down like this: 35 states. 88 programs. 150+ fellowship positions. 42 applicants. 27 of them speak English. You do the math. In the words of my Division Chief: “It’s a buyer’s market!”

So that leaves me with 365 days and counting to narrow this list down to 1 program and make a decision about where I will take my stand during the crucible of fellowship training. Fortunately, most of the programs can be quickly eliminated based on geography and lack of volume. After making some quick modifications to my excel-based decision calculator, we are left with the following options:

1. Los Angeles. UCLA Medical Center
2. Palo Alto. Stanford University
3. Denver. University of Colorado
4. Atlanta. Emory University
5. Ann Arbor. University of Michigan
6. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota
7. Rochester. The Mayo Clinic
8. St. Louis. Washington University
9. Durham. Duke University
10. New York. Columbia University
11. Cleveland. The Cleveland Clinic
12. Nashville. Vanderbilt University
13. Houston. The Texas Heart Institute
14. Houston. Baylor College of Medicine
15. Salt Lake City. University of Utah
16. Charlottesville. University of Virginia
17. Seattle. University of Washington

It may seem like this should be an easy thing to figure out, but let me tell you something: it’s not. The American Board of Thoracic Surgery doesn’t give you the opportunity to ease into getting to know these programs by asking a series of random questions, followed by a list of “must haves” and “must not haves” the way eHarmony does (I mean, that’s what people have told me). You have to just show up at the interview and figure out if you’re ready to commit to them or not.

The clock is ticking…