Keith Passed

Keith received the results from the Step 2 CS today and he passed.  It took two and a half months to get the results back, which is way too long!  He doesn't have anymore tests to take until residency.  Now he can relax, go on his interviews, and then match in March 2012.  We are so excited!  And mostly, we just can't wait to move closer to Minnesota.

Residency Interviews

It's the start of interview season for medical graduates and Keith has quite a few scheduled already.  We are really excited about the possibility of moving back to the upper midwest!  Keith has been able to schedule 6 of them around the same time so we can drive to all of them and not have to spend money on plane tickets.  The week before Thanksgiving he has two in Iowa, the week of Thanksgiving he has two in Omaha, NE, and the Monday after Thanksgiving he has one in Mankato, MN.  He has to fly back in January for an interview in Rochester, MN.  So far he has about 12 interviews scheduled!   He just took his last exam, the Step 2 CS this past Monday.  It's a little stressful having to wait so long for the results, especially since it is such a subjective exam, but I am sure he did well.

The picture above is Alex at the Huntcliff Stables Pumpkin Patch in Sandy Springs, GA.

Ross Clinical Rotations at Dekalb

So Keith started his IM clinical rotations at Dekalb on Monday.  Ross had told him to keep on the low down and not talk to anyone.  He kind of figured it was because he transferred from another hospital and didn't go through orientation there but it wasn't!  Apparently there is a dispute going on between Ross and Dekalb and because of it Dekalb Hospital isn't taking on anymore new students!  So today, after an hour of being there, they told Keith he had to go because they weren't taking on any new students until Ross University School of Medicine and the hospital work out their issues.  Great!  First of all, I can't believe they put Keith into this situation knowing what was going on!  The doctor that Keith was with today told him that they are bringing in too many new students.  Apparantly there are 107 new students scheduled to start at Dekalb Medical this month, and most of them are Ross students.  This really bothers me!  What if they don't settle their dispute, then what?  Do we move again?  We signed a one year lease, what do we do about that?

More details to come.  Keith is now trying to get a hold of someone in the clinical department.

And the Results are in. . . .

We anticipated getting back Keith's USMLE Step 1 exam results today!  Keith got up this morning about 4:30-5:00 to wait for the "E-mail".  We had heard of a few people that got their email at 8:30 EST (which would be 7:30 cst for us).   You have no idea how anxious we we're.  Finally around 7:30 cst Keith got his email and he passed!  He did a great job!  We are so proud of him.  Now he has emailed the registrar's office at the school and submitted his test results so he can get his clinical rotations scheduled!  I'm sure I'll let everyone know where we end up going!

Keith Took his Step 1

Today was the big day! Keith arrived at the exam center at 7:30 in the morning in Woodbury, MN and started his exam at 8:00am! The USMLE Step one exam is a looooong exam broken up into 7 different "blocks". The exam is timed so you only have so many minutes to answer each question! It's about an eight hour exam and Keith did finish a little early- about 3:30 in the afternoon, but he didn't take much of a break in between his "blocks". We are so excited to have him finished with the test! Now we can do all sorts of fun stuff together as a family! We are planning to go to the zoo on Friday morning with my sister and her family and then back to the zoo again on Sunday for a birthday party!

This picture was taken today at her friend, Haylie's house! The girls have so much fun playing together and acting silly! They are such cuties!

Good Luck Keith

Tomorrow morning Keith is taking his Step 1 exam!  The step 1 exam is the first in a series of 3 medical licensing exams!  This is a very long exam- 8 hours!  Good Luck Keith!!!!

Here is an example of a test question I took from a question bank!  What do you think the answer is?  Post it in the comments section!:
A 49 year old man is found to have a solitary neck nodule on physical examination. Laboratory studies reveal an elevated calcitonin level and fine needle aspiration confirms a diagnosis of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. Which of the following disease processes might the physician be concerned to look for in this patient?

A. Hyperparathyroidism
B. Papillary thyroid carcinoma
C. Pituitary adenoma
D. Subacute thyroiditis
E. Zollinger-Ellison syndrome

July 27th!

Alex is loving her new bike! We went riding again yesterday for a while! We are really going to get some good use out of it!

I thought I'd let you all know that Keith is registered now to take his USMLE Step 1 exam. He will be taking it in Woodbury on July 27th at 8am! This is a REALLY big exam- it's the first of three United States Licensing Exams! He has been studying so much! I know he will do well, especially since he did well on the NBME COMP exam and he did the 7 week Kaplan Live Retreat course!

Today Alex is working on her ant farm and making some bird treats to hang in the trees. I'm sure I'll be posting pictures later today or tomorrow!

Tuesday in Dominica

Here is a group of "spouses" on campus- Analeah (who's back is to the camera), Chrislyn (who is waving), Andrea, and Mike. We play board games every tuesday from 1-3 while our kids are in school or napping. We play in the CAC (which is the same building as the gym). It's air conditioned and cold. I love it!! Here we are playing "Ticket to Ride". I've become addicted to this game and love it. I pretty much win almost everytime I play. I hope to get this game when I get back to the U.S. and I hope some of the spouses continue with this even after I leave.

We have two more months left. It feels like a long time so I'm really not counting down, although Keith is. He can't wait to get off this island! Neither can I for that matter. We still aren't sure where we will be for fifth semester but we do know that from April 29th to June 9th Keith will be in Chicago to study for the Step 1 exam. He is taking the course through Kaplan and the course is expensive but it includes hotel and food.

Sint Eustatius

Keith had a phone interview today with a school in the caribbean. The island is called Sint Eustatius or Statia. It is a small island in the Netherland Antilles. It is real close to St Maarten and St Lucia. Keith says it went good and they told him he should know whether or not he is accepted within a couple weeks. His friend, Kristian, who was a Paramedic with Keith went to school here. Now he is an MD in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Here are some links about the island:
http://www.statiatourism.com/
http://www.statiapark.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Eustatius