#do pride

[mymedlife]

Happy NOM week. 

[mymedlife]

What did you want to go into before falling upon Osteopathy and failing to get into Med School the first time?

I’ve actually always wanted to be a doctor. My mom likes to tell people I decided this when I was two. I’m not sure about that, but the seed was probably planted that early. My sister was sick, she was born with a heart condition and doctors told our family that there was nothing that could be done, that we needed to take her home and let her die. I remember looking through photos as a kid and we have this really worn poloroid of my sister laying in the tiny little baby cages in the hospital, blue as can be. I asked my mom why we didn’t have a photo of me like that, and she looked at me and said “they only take these photos of the babies that are going to die.”

But she didn’t die. Through a lot of luck and the hard work of a concerned physician we were connected to a hospital who had some luck with infant heat transplants, and she was able to get on the list.

This began a life time of my sister going in and out of the hospital, while I was dragged along. We suffered heart ache and triumph, and somewhere along the line I realized that this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be one of those amazing people who saved lives, who stays up all night making phone calls on behalf of their patients, who makes a difference.

When it came time to apply to medical schools I was still young and niaeve to the world. This was what I’ve always wanted, and in my mind there was nothing getting in my way. So when my awful med advisor (who was fired right after I applied to med school) only had time for one or two meetings with students, I didn’t mind. I could do it on my own. So I applied to a hand full of prestigious schools and a few not so prestigious schools but who still ranked pretty high, blazed through my secondaries without ever asking anyone to read them, and still managed to get a hand full of interviews.

When I didn’t get in I was devastated. How could they not want me?! I mean it was me!

That’s when I realized that I had a lot of growing up to do.

I spent some time soul searching. I had never given any thought into a back up plan, or even considered any other career. I had worked my way through college tutoring other students, so I decided to enroll in a masters program. That way I was doing something while trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I figured this way I could be an associate professor, or transfer to the PhD program and become a professor.

While earning my masters I continued working in the research lab I volunteered at as an undergrad, but this time I was working on my own projects and writing my thesis. I also worked as a TA. And guess what, I hated it. Lab was boring, no one really talked to each other. TAing was fun, until it came mid term time and my office was flooded with people who waited until the last minute to study and wanted to know if I would give hints, or if I could boost up their grade just a little. Definitely not what I wanted to do with my life.

So I looked back into health care, I had let being a doctor simmer in the back of my mind for a few months and it wouldn’t leave. Nothing else quite compared.

I set up a meeting with the new heath advisor (who actually had time for students, what a concept), and in going over my old application she mentioned in addition to the schools I had already researched I should look into Osteopathy. The more research I did, the more I loved the field. The philosophy, the emphasis on primary care and preventative medicine, and being able to use my hands to heal people, it’s exactly what I wanted to get out of medicine.

When it came time to apply again, I made sure I had my adviser look over my application, which was now much stronger than before. I applied to both MD and DO programs this round, because despite loving the DO philosophy, there is a lot of DO hate in the world.

I had graduated in the summer right after submitting my application, so while I waited to hear back I got a job as a tutor and teacher at a private high school. While this wasn’t a medical field, it actually helped me become a better future doctor. Not because of the work, but because for the first time in my life I didn’t have health insurance. That was such an eye opening experience, and another story for another time.

I was invited to interview at MD and DO schools. As I mentioned in a previous post, the atmosphere at the DO interviews was so different than the MD schools. I just felt like I belonged there. I had two DO interviews in early October, and an MD in early November. Nothing quite compared to the school I currently attend, and after thinking long and hard about it I realized that nothing else probably would compare. So I pulled all of my applications, sent in my deposit to the school I attend, and the rest is history. 

[mymedlife]

What is a DO? A DO is a hand for you to hold, a shoulder for you to cry on, a backbone to give you strength, a pair of strong legs to lift you up, a pair of clear eyes to see the way, a pair of ears to hear your concerns, and a voice when you can't find yours.

Dominic King, DO, Creator of OsteopathTech

[mymedlife]

The day I came home and told my mother I wanted to become a doctor of osteopathy, she burst into tears. I had wanted to be a doctor since people started asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and she thought I was giving up that dream and becoming a chiropractor.

Eventually I was able to explain what a D.O. was and that I wasn’t giving up on my dream. What really helped was when she discovered her own doctor was a D.O. (funny how little attention patients actually pay to those two letters on our name tags).

Later I realized that this was just the beginning of what is most likely going to be a life long process of explaining to people what I do and why it’s so important to me.

I think it’s funny that the first thing that people go to when comparing M.D. and D.O. is that M.D. schools typically have higher GPAs. To be honest, I think going straight to numbers says more about the person making the comments than anything else.

I applied and interviewed at both M.D. and D.O. programs, and I certainly did feel like a number at my M.D. interviews. In fact, at one we were even given numbers so that our multiple mini interviewers could keep our comment sheets in order. All of my D.O. interviews, on the other hand, gave us name tags.

For me, being a D.O. just made sense. A lot of people like to laugh at it, but I like the four tenants of osteopathy: The person is a unit of body, mind, and spirit; the body is capable of self-regulation, structure and function are interrelated; rational treatment is based upon an understanding of the basic principles of body unity, self regulation, and the interrelationship of structure and function. I never understood the use of focusing on the symptoms instead of the person. It’s like someone putting band-aids on mysterious cuts that appear every morning instead of moving the end table they are walking into during midnight potty breaks. Although, I hear a lot of M.D. programs are moving towards some of these same ways of thinking, which pleases me greatly.

In addition, being able to do the osteopathic medical manipulations puts an extra tool in your toolbox of helping patients. Notice how I said and extra tool, not the only tool. There seems to be a misconception that all D.O.s do is medical manipulations. This is the same thing my mother thought when she cried over my “becoming a chiropractor.” So lets get this straight: chiropractors do manipulations, M.D.s do all the amazing things you think of when you think doctor, and D.O.s do both.

Manipulations are a great way to heal certain populations of patients. Will they cure heart disease? No. Will they help a 23 year old with symptoms of carpel tunnel avoid surgery for the time being? You bet. I saw a patient with thoracic outlet syndrome the other day, and while in the office we were able to do some OMT to stretch things out, lower that pesky elevated first rib, and sent him home with some muscle relaxants and an exercise regiment. So you see, OMT is just part of what we do.

The most important thing is choosing a program and a school that clicks with you and your personality. I knew my school was “the one” when I attended my interview, and nothing else compared despite their best attempts to woo me. I know there is a lot of negativity out there about D.O.s, and chances are it’s not going to go away any time soon. So for the time being I’ll continue working on my “why I’m a D.O. speech,” and work to be the best physician I can be.

I’m also pleased to point out that I’ve turned my mother into a believer, as she is now telling her friend all about her daughter the Osteopathic Doctor. If only I can convince her that O.D. and D.O. aren’t quite the same thing. 

[mymedlife]

"Take note of gender-related anatomical variance so that potentially uncomfortable ramifications are not actualized."

I love OMT instructions.