It has been a crazy week. I was told that I would be informed of the decision of the Admission committee on Friday, October 30th before 2:00 PM. At 2:05 I still didn't have an e-mail, so I called the admissions office. The lady who had the decisions for the EDP applicants was still at lunch, so I was told to check back later, I would know that day. There was a meeting at work at 3:00 and the e-mail had not arrived by then, so I sat through the meeting still not knowing.
At 4:10 or so I was finally let out of the meeting, and checked my e-mail. The decision was there, in the form of a PDF without any indication of the answer before the file was opened. I was able to open the file, read enough to see I was accepted, and then it was out the door to head home.
I of course called my wife and told her the answer, and called and talked to my parents. We all went out to dinner to celebrate. That was the first indication that something was wrong with our son. I fed him while we were waiting to be seated at the restaurant, which usually makes him content and sleepy. One of us had to hold him the entire time we were at dinner, which is very unusual for him. Luckily he went to sleep alright that night.
The next day, Saturday, our son seemed fine, but my wife was gone most of the day at a "mom-to-mom" sale and shopping for the dinner we were having that night with friends. I stayed home, watched our son and cleaned the house. The dinner went fine, and he didn't seem too fussy that night; in fact, he was loving the attention of all my wife's childless friends!
That night was bad. For the first time since he was around 3 months old, he didn't sleep through the night. He woke up crying, and refused to be comforted. The next day was worse, where he would cry for hours only settling down occasionally, to eat and when he was napping. He also developed a mild fever and was congested. All day, he was very fussy and upset. I also could feel I was developing a cold.
To make a long story short, my wife stayed home to watch our son and I ended up calling in sick to work because of my inability to sleep while being unable to breathe. The next day, my wife went to work and I stayed home with the baby since he still seemed sick, but appeared to be getting better. He hadn't had a fever since Sunday, so we sent him to daycare on Wednesday. Wednesday evening he had a fever again, so my wife took him to the doctor this morning and was told he was wheezing and had an ear infection. She just picked up his breathing treatments, steroids and antibiotics.
In other words, a lot has been going on that prevented me from immediately posting my success on here. While all of this was going on I completed the information required for my background check and it came back clean, so I am simply awaiting the official offer letter in the mail so I can send my deposit to the school and reserve my spot. I am very glad that I was accepted this cycle, as I expected to have to apply again next cycle to multiple schools, but thought the chance was worth the cost and effort. The moral here is, just because someone tells you it is a bad idea to, for example, apply to just one school, risk applying multiple cycles, or apply with a lack of clinical experience, only you can decide if the money and effort required is worth the chance that you will be accepted. I took the gamble, and for me, it paid off royally since I will not only be attending my top-choice school, but I will be starting a year earlier than I expected to. Good luck to everyone else applying this cycle, especially my soon-to-be classmates at my medical school!
