Another late intro

Hi to everyone at OPM. My name is Seth, I am 35 and living in the Fredericksburg ,VA area. I have always wanted to be a doctor and still have a poster (to be hung in my office)from 2nd grade that has a young artist’s (me) rendering of me being a doctor - "when I grow up."
I am originally from Philadelphia and worked at my local hospital in the radiology department all through college ( a Temple alum - just like Bill Cosby). Beginning as a bio major and foolishly listening to the guidance couselors - “in order to graduate in 4 years you need to take bio, orgo, and calc this semester” thus my downfall begins - when the teacher’s union goes on strike and me working two jobs find out that I have come down with Mono - “but doctor I haven’t been with any girls in a long time I’ve too busy working at the hospital and the photolab along with school - Ah Ha!” I discover Kissing is not the only way to get Mono. Thus, I graduate with a degree in Photojournalism in only 6 years.
After getting my sheepskin I chase my childhood sweetheart down to VA. She was my date at my Bar-Mitzvah and I was chasing her ever since. She finally agreed to marry me, which we did on the 13th anniversary of my Bar-Mitzvah. We figured it would be a good story for the kids. Unfortunately we would never have kids. My wife, who was diagnosed with Fanconi’s Anemia (please visit www.fanconi.org) at the age of 7, passed away from cancer almost 5 years ago. Fanconi patient’s have a predisposition to cancers - mostly leukemia, but also to other kinds such as head and neck cancers, as my wife had. Well, I think I’ve had enough time to screw my head back on and now I am looking to my future.
I am currently working at my local hospital in the … you guessed it - the radiology department( can’t get away from it), and I’ve also been working at my local BMW motorcycle dealership. What a combination - oh and the looks I get walking throught the department with my helmet and riding gear.
I am looking at using 2004 to get myself into studying and getting ready for the MCAT’s. I also think I might need to take my prereq’s over again, since I was not a stellar student. I promised myself before the end of the year I would meet with an admissions counselor at MCV and find out what they recommend, although from reading everyone’s notes there are many ways to go about this.
I should finish up - I would like to say that everyone I have read has been an inspiration. It’s just a shame that the article on OldManDave wasn’t in an earlier edition of The New Physician. I would have loved to go to the conference here this year in my backyard (D.C.), but hey maybe I’ll plan on a nice motorcycle trip next year to meet everyone.
I am looking forward to learning more and helping others in the journey to becoming a doctor.
Many thanks,
Seth

Welcome aboard to OPM! I am sure that you will see your dream come alive soon. If the pre-reqs are more than 7 years old some schools may frown if you do not retake, but from my understanding some OPM’ers never did and were able to get admitted. It really depends on how comfortable you feel with the material that will be tested on the MCAT. Good luck and keep us posted.

Welcome Seth! Thanks for sharing your story. It’s good to know that you’re not triskaidekaphobic since you got married 13 years after your bar-mitzvah, which was probably around age 13. I’m sorry to hear about your wife’s passing though. That must have been really hard.
Just curious though, what do you do in the radiology department, and do you want to be a radiologist?
BTW, I’m Stacy, 28-years-old, currently working FT in publishing, taking 1 class at night (PreCalculus I) at my local CC, living in the D.C. area too, and still needing to take all the science prereqs for medical school, which I will do starting next fall at either ODU or UNC-Greensboro, one of the two schools I’ve been accepted to for a 2nd bachelor’s degree–pending financial aid of course. That’s the nutshell version.
Love,
Stacy

Welcome, Seth!

Welcome welcome,
This is a great forum and you will get lots of support from folks here!!
Liz

Stacy, I began working at the local hospital in radiology as a weekend darkroom tech during college. They were very impressed with me and my work ethic that when they upgraded the darkroom to an automated processor (and phased out my job) they actually created a position in the fileroom for me.
When I moved down to VA and decided after working many years as a mechanic to look for work in the healthcare field I began working at hospitals again. The funny thing was that I put an application in at a hospital in Woodbridge, VA and they scooped me right up. They were switching to a new RMS (Radiology management system) for the department and the place they went to see the system in action when they were looking at different systems was my former workplace in Philly. Here I was - they could get me to train them, instead of having to train a new hiree. Then, I also began working at the motorcycle dealership and to top it off I began covering the fileroom at my other local hospital in Fredericksburg, VA. For a full year I worked every day and night at all three jobs - jokingly I would say I was practicing for my residency, truthfully I was trying not to deal with situations in my life.
In answer to your other question of if I wanted to go into Radiology. I don’t know - it is a good field, not only because I am a visual person ( my previous photographic interests), but also because you can make of it what you want; i.e. if you want to do procedures you can go into Interventional Radiology, if you like physics there is Nuclear Medicine and PET, etc. My interests have changed a little bit though - last year I attended the annual Scientific Symposium of the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, and was introduced to the world of Medical Scientists and Investigators. It was very interesting not just because of my connection with my wife’s illness (Fanconi and CA), but also they linked a Fanconi gene with one of the Breast CA genes (it appears they are one and the same), my mother is a survivor of CA (malignant melanoma and breast CA). So, I am also interested in research, but still want to have a clinical practice. I’m a people person. I think everyone we interact with has a story to tell and something to teach us whether we realize it at the time or later on.
Well, sorry for the long winded reply, but I hope I answered your questions.
Many thanks,
Seth

Thanks for answering my questions. I think I will probably end up in family practice/internal medicine b/c I’m a people person and want to do something very “hands on,” but I’ve always thought radiology would be interesting speciality.
I don’t know much about radiology so that’s why I asked. I think looking at X-Rays would be really interesting, but I wonder if I could deal with being in the dark all the time. Wait…I live in the dark so maybe I’d be o.k. Also, radiology may be too technical for me with awesome machines that are hard to comprehend and a lot of formulas to compute (my math issues surfacing again).
No need for me to worry about it now though. I’ll figure it out as an MSIII or MSIV (if I ever get there). I have to concentrate on PreCalculus first.
Love,
Stacy
P.S. I took a photography class in high school and college and liked it very much.

Seth,
Welcome to OPM! As you can see, we have some pretty special people here! I think, like I did, you will return again and again as you search for what you really want to do. Its never to late to try and do what you want. This site has been a lifeline for me at times and I have made wonderful friends. I hope to see you at our convention next year in Denver! That would make a great motercycle trip!
Kathy