My room at the
Crowne Plaza Hotel
in Dallas, Texas.


Hello to all from Dallas! Why am I in Dallas? I am currently on my second of ten scheduled interviews. In order:

SLU in St. Louis, MO
UTSW in Dallas, TX
UMKC in Kansas City, MO
UAB in Birmingham, AL
OUHSC in Oklahoma City, OK
MU in Columbia, MO
UT Memphis in Memphis, TN
UAMS in Little Rock, AR
UK in Lexington, KY
U of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH

I was in St. Louis earlier this week and am spending today and tomorrow in Dallas. The first interview went pretty well I think. Before you ask, "Do you think they will offer you a spot?" let me just say that them offering me an interview was offering me a spot already. As noted in a previous blog, a rank list is submitted by the program and all the applicants. So now it's just a matter of how applicants rank that particular program and how the program ranks all the interviewees. Of note, St. Louis has a great program, with hospital-paid benefits. The residents were all nice people, and the faculty seemed nice as well. I wasn't sure what to expect at first since many of the residents at UAMS seemed to dislike SLU. I can't figure why since the program seems as good or better than UAMS - perhaps a few less cataract cases. This is not likely to be too important to me since I plan on being fellowship trained one day.

I would really like to add an interview at Duke to this list, but I haven't heard from them yet. I have been denied by three places, two in Boston and the other being John's Hopkins; I have turned down four programs now. That leaves about 13 programs I haven't heard from just yet. Some of them might not ever respond, including Duke. We shall see.

We're having a girl in case you haven't heard! Mia Kathryn Thuro.

I am off from school from now until we return in January. This isn't the case for all of my class, it's just how I have scheduled it. Many of my peers took July or August off. I couldn't do that for obvious reasons - rotations I needed to get done early. Two months off to travel and celebrate the holidays isn't too bad if you ask me. I'll be plenty busy.

I'm not sure what else to talk about right now, so see you next time!

So What's Going On?

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted anything in awhile. Why, Bradley, your wife has announced her pregnancy - have you nothing to say? Don't you have interviews by now? Has your cat grown a brain yet? Well, the answers to these questions and more may be ahead.

First, and perhaps most importantly, the baby. Rachel has already announced the news, so that's why I haven't had much to say about it here. Don't worry, it doesn't make me any less excited, happy, scared - you name it. Any time someone asks, "Do you know what you're gonna have?" I wanna say "A heat attack." Of course I'm kidding, and then I say we don't know just yet, but I want a girl. This draws up many looks and comments of surprise - "Really?" Maybe it's because I grew up with four brothers and only one sister. We'll find out in about three weeks. Right now we're just in the pahse of buying diapers every week while we shop for groceries, and trying to figure out what baby furniture we want. Adding a family member and needing new furniture means needing to completely rearrange some things around the house. Closets have to be reorganized multiple times, furniture must be relocated or sold, and clothes must be donated or boxed up. This is all happening, but at a slow pace since we have several months to go.

Interviews. It's interesting. Even though ophthalmology matches its applicants two months sooner than the other programs, the interviews aren't much earlier. I know someone going into pediatrics who is interviewing, like, yesterday while I continue to wait for my first one. I have so far booked five interviews, I'm trying to decide on a sixth offer, and UAMS has yet to contact me (which, barring some unforeseen earth-shattering catastrophe, will happen eventually). I am going to Dallas and St. Louis the last week of October, Oklahoma City sometime in November, and Lexington and Memphis in December. Cincinnati is the one I am trying to decide whether I want to go to or not. My goal is to get around 10 - 12 interviews, and since most programs haven't even begun informing applicants of interview selection, I don't think I have anything to worry about. Here's hoping. I have finally begun working on my application materials for the transitional year - yep, a separate application process meaning twice the money and time.


And no, the cat still has no brain. Any unanswered questions can be posed here at your leisure.