The Matrix, ABS style

The trip to Houston was not epic.  The humidity was not epic.  The ridiculously cute 5 week old puppy was not epic.  The American Board of Surgery oral exam--now that is something to write a blog post about....

I packaged up the little man and met G'ma en route with a quick pit stop in Denver.  We got to see G'pa, eat bar-be-que, and hang out at DIA for a bit.  All of this would seem quaint, even pass as a normal Judki activity if it weren't for the underlying mission--pass the oral surgery boards.  


In our lives as doctors, few things are more fear-instilling than the oral boards.  Not every specialty has them, most that do submit known cases for discussion, and even when people take them and survive, saying they really weren't that bad, they are LYING!!  DO YOU HEAR ME?  LYING!!


It goes something like this...
-->you started your surgery residency 5 years ago, realizing that these boards were coming, like a slow moving freight train, you can't escape, no matter how smart/bright/funny/popular/savvy/prepared you are.

Running stair pyramids at DG on call

-->You passed your qualifying exam in August, aka written boards, aka a computer test, in a weird testing center in an even stranger part of town, with flourescent lights buzzing overhead.  And you PAY $1000 to do this!
-->You 'picked' one of four dates to buy a plane ticket, stay in a hotel in a strange city, pull a random lottery for one of three days, morning or afternoon, first or second session, to sit in numerous hotel rooms (yes, bed and everything) containing two strangers each who pepper you with questions over the course of a few hours.  And you PAY another $1000 to do this!

My admission card

-->You put on a black suit, pick up a piece of paper with many strange names and numbers, walk down a long, long, long hotel hallway where around every corner is another black suit standing in front of a hotel door waiting for it to open--if this isn't the real-life Matrix, I don't know what is.  Wish I had a floor-length leather trench coat--might have given me some magical powers.  And I definitely don't think Neo had to deal with breastfeeding a sleep-deprived beautiful parasite in a hotel lobby bathroom minutes before his big showdown with Agent Smith, but who said motherhood was easy?


In true Judki fashion, this trip also included packing up the super baby, who now has more frequent flyer miles than most people 20x his age, flying in a super babysitter, my mom, and going a few days early for a super review course (another $1000).  On the bright side, we got to stay with Belen's family a couple of nights, play with a puppy, eat cerviche, monopolize the nail salon, and run through way too many practice scenarios (Belen was MUCHO meaner than any of my real examiners)!

Oh yeah...I passed :)