Hi! My name is Naomi and I am a wife and mother. I am almost 26 and my husband is 26. We have three children and one on the way (we will have 4 under the age of 3.5 come april!) Anyway we really aren’t old but definitely non traditional. My husband has completed 1 year of school. He hadn’t really been interested in college since his career path has been established since he was 14. He graduated high school in 2000 and then served a two year mission for our church for 2 years (2001-2003) we were married in Oct 2004 and welcomed our first child in Oct 2005. He has been a certified personal trainer since Nov 2003. He has several other certifications through the National Academy of Sports Medicine most notably he is a Corrective Exercise Specialist and sometimes does some work at a local spinal clinic where the Chiropractor works predominantly with scoliosis patients.
After realizing he would need to own his own Personal Training studio with 4 or 5 trainers under him to be able to support our family properly he has decided to go back to school. Originally looking at doing a Doctor of Physical Therapy program but his heart is not in it and the pay would end up being equivalent to what he makes now once you factor in student loans.
So we began a search for something that would combine his love of the human body (seriously he considers gross clinical anatomy as his fun reading… I have never seen him pick up a fictional book in the 4+ years I’ve known him… and he frequently requests medical/anatomical/pharma ceutical text books for birthday, Christmas, and anniversary presents) with his love of athletics (American Kenpo Karate, Track and Field, and weight training).
After looking at professions we started wondering what it takes to be a physician for sports teams, whether they be professional or college level. We came to the conclusion that Orthopedic Surgery with a Sports Medicine emphasis would be an excellent field for him. He is excited but nervous because we have always had grand dreams that we can never quite seem to accomplish (although part of that was being wooed my multi-level marketing people who wanted to use his extensive knowledge of supplements to their benefit… we realize now that even if there was a way to get rich quick that we would not be happy as he tends to be a workaholic. He generally starts his first session of the day at 5am… sometimes he has already run 4 miles before this time. It is not uncommon for him to be up at 3 am. Then he will be home around noon for lunch and possibly a quick nap and then back to work by 3pm and doesn’t get home until 7pm. We generally eat dinner and get the kids in bed by 8pm and we are in bed by 8:30 where we talk for a few minutes and watch the latest episode of Monk or House and then we are asleep most nights before 9:30. His current job is stable but there isn’t enough growth potential, and the stability is only guaranteed for 6 weeks at a time (as this is often the amount of training a person buys at once).
Because of this he would need to finish an associates at our local community college. But he would then transfer to a University to get his bachelor’s and would do all his pre-req’s there so they carried more weight.
Also we need the time to save money and get our credit straightened back out (let’s just say never accept a job in San Diego based on someone saying they are grooming you for upper management… and especially don’t rely on your credit cards to pay bills while you hold out hope that your big promotion is only a few more months away!)
We are planning on moving back to the Baltimore Maryland area to be near family. My husbands parents live there (as well as his youngest sibling) and this would be mainly for me. I do pretty well with the kids and his schedule now but we know that medical school (hopefully at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Georgetown, George Washington, or if his gpa and mcat aren’t up to that level then Howard so we can stay in the Baltimore-DC area) will be a whole other monster and we feel like we need family members around to help me out with the children so I can maintain sanity while I temporarily become a single mother of 4 
So all of this being said what do you think would be his best options?
We are looking at him doing a pre-professional degree at Tulsa Community College (that is where we currently live) and then him transferring to University of Maryland College Park for the last two years of his bachelor’s or University of Maryland Baltimore County if he doesn’t get accepted into UMD-CP.
Is there anyone here who has graduated med school and gone on to do an ortho surgical residency? Anyone who has done sports medicine? Any suggestions for me? I know we will be living on loans for the next 12 years while he does school and his residency… but what other advice is there.
I am looking at getting him MCAT prep books for our anniversary next month and for Christmas. Any specific books I should get him? He loves to read.
How do you think his story will play out to med school admissions? Will he look like a flake for pursuing med school when he is 30 as opposed to full filling a life long calling if he went later in life?
Do you think his background in personal training and volunteering at the Spinal Clinic will help? What about the fact that he will have 4 children ages 6,5,4,3 at the time he will begin medical school?
What if he doesn’t feel the desire to save humanity but merely loves the process of analyzing and fixing the human musculoskeletal system? He obviously has compassion and he is a very friendly funny person, but he hasn’t been bitten by any bug to want to cure diseases, I guess he is more mechanical. But he is interested in publishing research in journals so far as it pertains to sports medicine. Will that be frowned upon? I also have read that they are expecting a shortage of orthopedic surgeons by the year 2020 because the amount of expected joint replacements… will this help him with med school admissions if he makes it known from the beginning that he is interested in orthopedics? Or would it be more beneficial to behave as though you are open to any calling without the medical profession… cause in all honesty I don’t think he would be happy doing internal medicine, or family practice. I believe orthopedics with or without working for a sports team would be his true passion. Plus he would be in residency and then starting a practice while our children are in high school. He would probably volunteer his services to their teams. At least free consultations, so I guess there is a strong desire to serve humanity, just not in the typical sense.
Sorry this has been so long but I am definitely a planner and wanted to give the most information I could for you all to give advice on. He has done well in school for the year he went. He wasn’t a 4.0 but something like a 3.6 and I imagine that now that he has a purpose for school besides getting a degree so we don’t embarrass our children he would do tons better. Also he has some great references. One is his mission president Stephen M. Studdert who worked with him for two years on a very hands on level and know his character exceedingly well. He was a presidential adviser to three different presidents (Ford Raegan and George H.W. Bush) another reference would be an NFL player who we went to church with who has known him for 10 years and currently plays for the Detroit Lions (Edward Mulitalo if any of you have heard of him) and the last reference that he currently would have would most likely not be allowed but it would be his grandfather who is an MIT graduate and currently writes college calculus texts… although I don’t know if that much math ability currently runs in his veins. Supposing that the grandfather would not be allowed for obvious reasons and he was limited to only one non medical reference which would be the best to go with? Stephen Studdert for the weight of a presidential advisor or Edward Mulitalo for the who sports related angle? Hopefully he can use both as they are both great men.
Please give me advice and constructive criticism. For the record I live my life very glass half full so I am full of optimism and as a result do not take kindly to harshness and negativity, but I thrive off of constructive criticism as I am always planning on ways to better myself.
For the record I will be attending school once we are back in baltimore and all 4 children are in school. I will be finishing and Interior Design degree and starting degrees in Photography and fashion design. The arts are my passion and I am not looking for a career just to learn more about the things I love. I will focus on being a wife and mom more than a student though. I will drop everything if need be for Danny to achieve his goals. I am hard headed but as an optimist I am also very supportive of other people’s dreams. It’s one of my great joys to see other people accomplish something they once thought impossible!
Please forgive the rambling, any redundancies, any inaccuracies in grammar or spelling, and any perceived naivete as I am currently experiencing a first trimester hormonal surge, momnesia (just had a baby in march) and all other sorts of brain drain. Thanks!
Hello and Welcome to OPM.
Let me just start off by saying that the journey both you and you and your husband will be going through is a tough one. I am currently a 2nd year medical student and I have 3 children (7, 4, and 2). My wife works from home and it is one of the most difficult things you can do. But, it is the most rewarding.
The good thing about this website, is that there probably is no question that you have that has not already been asked and addressed. Also, with you going to Maryland, you will be in a perfect spot to come to the conference next year.
If you have any questions feel free to ask. Have your husband come on this website and ask. And if you want to talk to my wife about things, let me know and I will give you her e-mail address via PM.
Again, welcome. You are amongst kindred spirits.