Physicians & Premeds Can Still be Thankful!

Dr. Ryan Gray: The Premed Years, session number 104.

Hello and welcome to the Medical School Headquarters Podcast; where we believe that collaboration, not competition, is key to your premed success. I am your host, Dr. Ryan Gray, and in this podcast we share with you stories, encouragement and information that you need to know to help guide you on your path to becoming a physician.

Thank you for joining us, thank you for being part of our 104th episode here at the Medical School Headquarters Podcast. Now if you do the math, 104 divided by 52 is 2. This is our two year anniversary, and for that I’m going to play you something.

Flashback to Episode One

“Hello and welcome to the Inaugural Medical School HQ Podcast, I’m your host, Ryan Gray. This podcast has been months in the making ever since my wife and I started www.MedicalSchoolHQ.net which has well over 50,000 views now. I knew that a podcast was the next step in distributing information to the readers. Medical School HQ was started because my wife and I, who are both physicians, remember what it was like to go through the premed process with little to no help.”

Wow, you remember that Allison?

Dr. Allison Gray: Yes.

Dr. Ryan Gray: That’s awesome.

Dr. Allison Gray: It is awesome, Ryan. It’s really amazing. Two years later.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Yeah, it’s funny I go back and listen to that and I was so nervous talking on the microphone.

Dr. Allison Gray: I can tell because I know you well.

Dr. Ryan Gray: I read that whole thing, I’m sure everybody knew that I was just reading off of what I had pre-written. But you know what, it was a start.

Dr. Allison Gray: Absolutely.

Dr. Ryan Gray: And I think- I hope that’s a lesson maybe that everybody can take from is you have to start from somewhere. So for you nontraditional students out there, there are a lot of you that are listening to this podcast and you want to become a physician; you just need to start.

Dr. Allison Gray: And take the leap of faith.

Dr. Ryan Gray: It may be ugly to begin with, like this first podcast.

Dr. Allison Gray: Oh you’re being hard on yourself, it was not ugly. The first time I was on the podcast, now that was ugly. I was so much more nervous than you were. Oh my goodness, I think I was sweating bullets.

Dr. Ryan Gray: I had a friend email me after we released the first podcast or couple, and he emailed he goes, “Hey, were you reading that?”

Dr. Allison Gray: Aww.

Dr. Ryan Gray: He called me out on it.

Dr. Allison Gray: I don’t- see I think maybe for experienced podcasters they might recognize but I think- I wouldn’t have known except that I know you.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Yeah. You do know me. So that’s awesome, 104 episodes, two years in the making. Just four episodes ago we celebrated our hundredth podcast, but I knew we wanted to- I knew I wanted to do something a little bit different as well for our two year anniversary, our 104th podcast. And it just happens to be that we’re releasing this right around Thanksgiving here in the US. And the majority of you listening are in the US, though we do have our Canadian brethren up north.

Dr. Allison Gray: And they celebrated Thanksgiving a month ago.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Did they?

Dr. Allison Gray: Yes they did.

Dr. Ryan Gray: What day is that?

Dr. Allison Gray: It’s the first Monday of October.

Dr. Ryan Gray: See? We’ve got the Canadian contingent here in the studio, that’s awesome. So what I wanted to talk about today, was talk about some things that we are thankful for from having this podcast, but also just being physicians. I think Allison you would agree that in medicine nowadays, there’s a lot of negativity towards being a physician. And a lot of it’s coming from physicians. And at some point we’ll talk about this book- what’s it called? ‘Complicated’?

Dr. Allison Gray: No, no that’s-

Dr. Ryan Gray: No that’s [Inaudible 00:04:09], never mind. Yeah, that’s a great book.

Dr. Allison Gray: Oh my goodness, I have to look it up now.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Yeah, anyway. There’s just- there’s so much negativity and I’m sure as you continue on your premed journey, you will be told, “Don’t do it. Don’t go into medicine, it’s not worth it.”

Dr. Allison Gray: The name of the book you’re thinking of is ‘Doctored.’

Dr. Ryan Gray: ‘Doctored,’ yes.

Dr. Allison Gray: It’s really sad, the title is ‘The Disillusionment of an American Physician.’ It’s sad.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Yeah. But anyway-

Dr. Allison Gray: But there is- there is, there’s a lot of disillusionment.

Dr. Ryan Gray: And I think that’s always been one of the goals here on the podcast is to show you kind of everything. There are some struggles on the other side, there are some struggles as you go through the process, but in the end if you have the right reasons for what you are doing, then you’ll be fine on the other end as long as you keep those in mind.

Dr. Allison Gray: Yup.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Would you agree?

Grateful to be a Physician

Dr. Allison Gray: Absolutely. I firmly believe that no matter what the landscape of healthcare looks like, I will forever be grateful and feel privileged to be a physician and to have the responsibility we do, and to be able to practice medicine. So even if we have an apocalypse or something, and zombies take over the planet- my worst fear, you know there’s nothing remotely like what we have now, and maybe all the broken parts are also gone away, I will still be grateful that for the knowledge, the skills, the- just to be a physician. There’s a lot that’s rewarding, and I am thankful for that.

Dr. Ryan Gray: That is awesome. So what I want to do, I want to first- I’m going back to-

Dr. Allison Gray: Need a Hot Tub Time Machine.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Hot Tub Time Machine. So listening to that initial podcast, it said we’d have over 50,000 page views I think, at that time. We’re over 600,000 now of page views.

Dr. Allison Gray: What what!

Dr. Ryan Gray: We’re over 200,000 podcast downloads.

Dr. Allison Gray: That’s so cool.

Ratings, Reviews and Sharing Our Content

Dr. Ryan Gray: Which is amazing, and we continue to grow every day. And a lot of that is because you that are listening right now, you continue to give us great feedback. We have over 220 five star ratings in iTunes, which is amazing. There are so many established amazing podcasts out there that have nowhere near that. And so for you taking the time to go to www.MedicalSchoolHQ.net/iTunes and leave that rating and review which we ask for typically at the end of every episode. 220 plus of you have done that, and I want to thank you for that. So I’m thankful for you.

Dr. Allison Gray: I am as well.

Dr. Ryan Gray: But you are also going and sharing that content, because we couldn’t grow without you sharing it. So you are going and telling your classmates, you’re going and putting it on Twitter and Facebook, and wherever else letting people know, “Hey, stop reading SDN, go check out the podcast over here,’ so we thank you for that.

Dr. Allison Gray: I love too recently, how you posted on Facebook Ryan and asked a question about where- or maybe it was Twitter, I never know. But you asked people where are they listening? And people were taking pictures of where they listen, and it was so cool. People were posting pictures of their dashboard because they listen in the car, and it’s awesome.

Dr. Ryan Gray: One person tweeted that she was listening while cleaning which was awesome. And that was at the end of the last podcast, I think I said, “Hey send us a picture where you’re listening to this right now,” and we got a bunch of good ones.

Dr. Allison Gray: Well and that’s the beauty of podcasting, you can listen anywhere.

Dr. Ryan Gray: You can. So let’s talk about things that we are thankful for in general. And let’s just start with being a physician, Allison. What are you thankful for about having that MD in your case, or a DO at the end of your name and being able to call yourself a physician?

Impacting Peoples’ Lives

Dr. Allison Gray: I think that every day I try to leave the office feeling as though I’ve made a difference in some way, and I think that being a physician and practicing medicine gives you the opportunity to have that reward every day. That you can make a difference. And it may be very small, but it’s a difference. And I think some people enter the field of medicine, they want to become physicians because they want to save lives, and I think that’s admirable. I think that when it comes to real life and reality for a lot of physicians, you may not necessarily be saving lives on a daily basis, but you may be doing something that is very important and that your patients value so very much and that affects their quality of life in a huge way. And so that’s I think the thing I value most; that I can hopefully every day leave the office- besides all the stuff that we complain about, the paperwork, the this, the that, the administrative stuff, the bureaucratic red tape, the insurance companies, blah, blah, blah. The point is that all of that fades away into the background when you have a patient sitting with you and telling you, “You know what? It’s really so amazing that I used to have headaches every single day and now I can live my life again and I’m headache-free.” I mean that may seem really small and insignificant, but for somebody who’s dealing with debilitating migraines or something like that every single day and they’re feeling like they can’t function, for them to say, “You fixed me, I feel like a new person,” I can’t even tell you, that brings me joy. That brings me so much joy. And especially I have to add as a neurologist, Ryan likes to make fun all the time about how I just sit in my chair and diagnose people but don’t actually have anything to offer, and that’s not so true. That’s not true. And the other thing I think, particularly when I was more heavily inpatient- now I do a lot of outpatient work, but inpatient when you’re seeing people who are dying and are at the end of life, and you’re trying to help their family through one of the worst times ever, and you’re trying to just be there, be that sort of- that constant presence in the background or in the foreground who can just try to help educate and reassure and just be there, and help ease suffering and try to help that person have a dignified death. I mean something like that, so very different at the very other end of the spectrum. For me that is so rewarding, again just being able to make a difference and it comes in so many different ways, shapes and sizes. You can’t- I think as a premed I couldn’t contemplate all that being a physician and practicing could mean in terms of making a difference.

Ability to Reassure Patients

Dr. Ryan Gray: That’s awesome. You know one of the biggest I think I’m grateful for that I enjoy? Is the ability to not necessarily cure somebody because in my job I’m not really curing people- I see people for kind of every day mundane stuff as a primary care doctor. But my ability to reassure patients that everything’s going to be okay. And that is such a huge part of healing in and of itself. You know, the reassurance that what you are struggling with right now is a viral illness, you don’t need antibiotics, you don’t need a ZPack, you don’t need this, you don’t need that, just go home, good old fashioned rest and fluid intake and some good old warm chicken noodle soup, and you’ll be fine after a couple days. The body is a miraculous thing that is able to heal itself most of the time, and I think a lot of physicians are scared to stand and put their foot down and go, “No, you are fine just give it a couple days.” And if you are not fine after a couple days, then come back and we’ll talk some more. And you just have to be comfortable telling patients that and saying it confidently and kind of giving them something to be confident in, in your confidence.

Dr. Allison Gray: Yeah, absolutely. Reassurance is huge. I think about with my job I see a lot of athletes who’ve had concussion, I see a lot of people in general who have had concussion, but I think there’s so much uncertainty and fear now in the media- I mean if you look at the recent NFL lawsuit, there is so much that we still don’t know about concussion and so much uncertainty and fear with a lot of young athletes and older athletes about what does it mean that I’ve now hit my head three times and they’re terrified about what the future holds. And it’s nice to be able to reassure them, and to let them know that they look good. They have a normal exam, their imaging looks good. I mean all the things we do on a daily basis, it means so much to that person sitting in the chair. And I think you and I both know that too because we’ve been on the other side of things and it’s a very big deal to be reassured as a doctor who is now a patient. And when you’re sitting with someone and to feel like you feel safe, you feel okay knowing that they’re going to be taking care of you and reassuring you. So absolutely, reassurance is huge, huge with healing.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Yeah one of the- I know I’ve mentioned it on the podcast before. One of the best moments that I like as a physician is being in the room behind closed doors one-on-one with a patient. That’s where I think I shine. I am able to kind of let everything else go and just be there with the patient. And I’m thankful I can do that, and I’m thankful that patients and their families- and that’s something else to be thankful for, is patients that allow me to take care of them.

Dr. Allison Gray: Absolutely. We forget that- and I may have said this once before. But we forget that patients come into the office and completely- hopefully let it all show. I mean they get naked, they tell us their deepest, darkest fears, and we should always be thankful for that.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Definitely.

Dr. Allison Gray: Because I mean that’s how we diagnose, that’s how we help people. Not because we want to see a bunch of people naked.

Dr. Ryan Gray: We talked about that in the get touchy feely podcast episode.

Dr. Allison Gray: Ah, yes.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Remember that one?

Dr. Allison Gray: Yes, yes, yes.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Anything else you’re thankful for being a physician, being a neurologist?

Working with Others

Dr. Allison Gray: I love getting to work with a whole bunch of people every day, working in a team. I do. I think- you know again particularly in the inpatient setting where you’re just working with lots of people all the time and every person has their role and that role is so crucial. I’m thankful for that, I think as I’ve said you really can’t do a lot in medicine these days by yourself. And to be honest I don’t think it would be very fun to just sit- like I can’t even imagine sitting in an office all by yourself with nobody around and having people come in and see you, and it just wouldn’t be fulfilling in the way that it is when you work with a team and you all work together to help people and get things done. And I know that there are lots of fields and bodies of work that involve teamwork, but I think I really appreciate that and am thankful for that in medicine. And I’m thankful for just the way that our medical structure works. The beauty of the teaching structure that medicine has, and I don’t think they have this in law school. I mean in law school you do your internship and then you become like a big, fancy corporate attorney right away or something. I don’t know, that’s what my friends say. No, that’s not at all.

Dr. Ryan Gray: That’s how a TV show works, right?

Thankful for Medical School Education Structure

Dr. Allison Gray: Right, that’s what they say on ‘Suits.’ No, no. Or ‘Franklin and Bash.’ No but I really- I have so much respect and love really for the way that medicine is taught and just the teaching infrastructure that exists. So I’m really thankful for that because I think it’s part of- just like how we love to be on this podcast and talk to you and tell you out there all about what we think is helpful and important in the road to becoming a physician. It’s in the same way, when you’re in the hospital and you’re teaching medical students and residents, you’re helping grow the next generation of physicians, helping to pass on knowledge and make things bigger and better all the time. So I’m thankful for that too.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Yeah. That’s awesome, I love being able to share all of that. And it’s amazing that we get these reviews that I talked about earlier, over 220 ratings and we get reviews; the last couple reviews have talked specifically about our podcast helping students get into medical school. Right? So one here from CJohnF says, “You can count this long time listener as yet another student you’ve helped get accepted to a great MD program.”

Dr. Allison Gray: That is so awesome, that is- goosebumps, that’s amazing. That is so cool.

Dr. Ryan Gray: It’s awesome, and there was another one- I can’t find it right now, there was another one just recently as well that they got into medical school as well. So if you’re just starting out listening to this podcast, go back, start at number one even though it was pretty terrible.

Dr. Allison Gray: Oh you are so hard on yourself it’s ridiculous. I think you should all tweet Ryan and tell him it really wasn’t that bad. Because it really wasn’t and he won’t believe me.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Go start at number one and listen, and I would almost guarantee you that the information that you’ll get from the podcast will help you get into medical school.

Dr. Allison Gray: Yeah, and congratulations to all of you out there who are listeners and have gotten into medical school, it’s so amazing and we’re so, so honored to have been part of your journey and to have provided you help along your way. And thank you for letting us know, you have no idea how we dance around the living room, we get so excited when we hear that one of you out there has gotten in. Maybe because of something that we said, or some advice that Ryan was able to get from somebody he interviewed, maybe one of my crazy tangents that you listen to that helped.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Crazy tangents.

Dr. Allison Gray: I digress.

Dr. Ryan Gray: And I’ll offer this guarantee; if you listen to all 104 podcasts, and you don’t get into medical school, we’ll refund you the money that you paid for the podcast.

Dr. Allison Gray: Ryan, the podcast is free.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Oh, it’s free. Good job. Anyway. That’s awesome. So yes, we are thankful for being physicians and everything we get to do as physicians, and I think that’s something that I want you to take home right now, is that yes you can be a physician and still be thankful for being a physician.

Dr. Allison Gray: Absolutely. You know they talk about people- what makes headlines, and you know for example when somebody goes out to a restaurant and the food was terrible and the service was terrible, that person is a lot more likely to write something nasty on Yelp than somebody who had the best dinner ever and had a great time. Like that person who recently wrote a terrible Yelp review and the owner wrote them back and the scathing thing, it was hilarious. But anyway- see I digress again. But yeah, so people- my point is people are most likely I think to complain and I think in healthcare we obviously know that there is a lot that’s broken, but that’s what’s making headlines. People talking about all the things that are broken and wrong, and I’m certainly not trying to downplay any of that. We have clear problems, real, real problems in this country with our healthcare system and so many people who need better healthcare. But there- what is not making headlines, well there are still a lot of us out here- practicing physicians who still wake up every morning and are thankful and just feel privileged to have this role and to be able to help patients out there, and help each other and make a difference. You know and I have to say Ryan, just on a sad note, I was reading an article on KevinMD the other day by someone who wrote about physician suicide. And she wrote about- it was so sad, she showed pictures of these three men and women who started out really happy kids and they went through medical school, and then one of them I think into residency. But they all committed suicides at different times because of just how hard their journeys were at different points in medical school, in their training. And I just- I read that and I was so sad. And again it’s- I mean there are problems, it’s not an easy road. But if you are out there listening, just hold fiercely to your dreams and your desire, your ambition to do this, because it is worth it; we wouldn’t lie to you. Right? We try to provide you honest and up-to-date information when we say that.

Reasons for Going to Medical School

Dr. Ryan Gray: It is worth it if you are doing it for the right reasons.

Dr. Allison Gray: Doing it for the right reasons, if you’re informed. You know? If you’re an informed person and you know what you’re getting into, you know that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. Like anything else in life there are challenges, but it is still- I would do it all over again 100 times. Wouldn’t you?

Dr. Ryan Gray: I would. One of our more popular podcasts is episode 45 which you can listen to at www.MedicalSchoolHQ.net/45. It’s five reasons to go to medical school and five to not. And I think that’s an important one to listen to if you’re on that edge, if you don’t know if medicine is right for you or if you’re doing it for the right reasons, maybe your parents really want you to be a physician, maybe you think being a physician will make you lots of money; there are many reasons why people want to become a physician. So listen to that one and see if you agree, and if you don’t let us know in the comments on that page.

Support One Another

Dr. Allison Gray: And other thing I think that I took away recently from reading that article now just as we’re talking here is just that we all should continue to be supportive of one another. You know here we are, we’re thankful for what we do, and part of the breakdown and what that leads people into trouble- and this article talked about it was, or this piece I should say, was that we’re not out there supporting each other enough. So premeds out there, I mean you are on such a challenging, such a hard journey and I’m sure there are days you feel like quitting and you feel like, “Oh my God this is never ending,” and you’ve been working at this for so long, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and just if you’re premeds out there, support each other. You know medical students out there, support each other. Residents- my God support each other. We all should be out there supporting each other because as Ryan says at the beginning of every episode, it’s cooperation- it’s not competition that’s going to make us better.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Collaboration.

Dr. Allison Gray: It’s collaboration, exactly. And we- you know one of our members he applied several times and just got in. I mean sometimes these journeys can be so long, but they can be successful.

The Academy

Dr. Ryan Gray: I like it. Yeah and you just- you mentioned one of our members. So we have The Academy where it’s a private advising community where you pay a small amount of money every month and you get us. You get our advice, you get the community, you get office hours where we meet once a month and kind of talk and talk about your issues. We have a lot of members in there and five of them this year- I think everybody that applied has gotten into medical school so far. And that’s awesome. I’m going to play a clip real quick from one of them.

Andrew: “I’ve been out of school for several years, and so to be able to be a part of people who are kind of going through the same thing and just having that atmosphere of being able to ask questions and be able to get answers from people who are going through it, to be able to help folks who are also going through the same thing. You know, it’s not really something I’m able to get doing what I do right now, jump so far away from campus and that type of community. So just to have that here it was a big help to me just simply going through. You know, to ease my questions about the MMI, to ease my questions about what interview day is going to look like, what the MCAT is going to look like, those kinds of things.”

Dr. Ryan Gray: That was Andrew. He applied for his first time this year and has been a member of The Academy now for six or seven months, and crushed his interview at his top school and will probably go there; he’s got a couple other interviews coming up as well. So that’s awesome. Andrew if you’re listening, congrats again.

Dr. Allison Gray: Awesome, congrats.

Dr. Ryan Gray: We had Brian that got into medical school, Melissa got into University of South Carolina. We have Amanda got into medical school. So just awesome, awesome, awesome. So go to www.JoinTheAcademy.net if you have no idea what we’re talking about when we talk about this community. We talk about The Academy. Go to www.JoinTheAcademy.net, check it out. We will review your personal statements, we do mock interviews, we’ll meet once a month for office hours; it’s been an awesome journey with these students and I hope you listening that are applying next year, jump on board now and we’ll get you started for next year.

Allison.

Final Thoughts

Dr. Allison Gray: Ryan.

Dr. Ryan Gray: I think we’ll make this a short episode this week.

Dr. Allison Gray: Okay.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Do you have anything else to say?

Dr. Allison Gray: I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots of turkey. Or if you’re vegetarian, have lots of Tofurkey.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Tofurkey.

Dr. Allison Gray: No really, it’s good.

Dr. Ryan Gray: I don’t know, whatever.

Dr. Allison Gray: It’s good, it’s good. I’m excited, I love Thanksgiving. It’s the stuffing, the turkey, of course has to be gluten-free stuffing now.

Dr. Ryan Gray: Here’s my motto, or here’s what I say. There’s a reason we only eat turkey once a year.

Dr. Allison Gray: Why?

Dr. Ryan Gray: Because it’s not good.

Dr. Allison Gray: Maybe that or it makes you sleepy, I don’t know. I’ll tell you my favorite food is not turkey on Thanksgiving, it’s other stuff. It is actually the stuffing and I’ll tell you, you know since I’ve had to be gluten-free I can’t find a very good gluten-free stuffing. So if you’re out there and you also have to eat gluten-free, please let me know if you know of a good gluten-free stuffing. Because I miss the stuff I used to have. That and sweet potatoes, and I’m getting hungry.

Dr. Ryan Gray: That’s awesome. I do want to take a second and thank the several students that left us more five star ratings and reviews in iTunes. www.MedicalSchoolHQ.net/iTunes if you have not done so yet.

We had RashaanB from the US say, “As a nontraditional premed I wish I had found this earlier,” which is awesome. Says, “Invaluable.” Tasila a.k.a Neurosapiens says, “Arcane information-” I think I talked about this one last week but it was just awesome. TheChrisPerson says, “Outstanding.” CJohnF who I mentioned earlier says, “Real solid advice,” he got into medical school, congrats CJohnF. HopefulDoc was the other one that got into medical school says, “Incredibly insightful resource for premeds and beyond. These podcasts helped me get into med school and I’m certain they can help other students along the journey as well,” which is awesome. And then another Canadian five star rating and review says- AMA0826 and they say, “Amazing, wonderful podcast.”

So again thank you for those five star ratings and reviews. www.MedicalSchoolHQ.net/iTunes where you can leave us a rating and review. Even if you don’t listen in iTunes, it’s awesome if you go to iTunes, leave us a rating and review there because iTunes is really where the majority of people listen to podcasts. But if you’re on Stitcher you can leave us a rating there as well. We’ll take anything and everything. It’s awesome.

Shoot me an email, Ryan@medicalschoolhq.net if you have any questions about joining The Academy, if you’re looking at more private coaching and advising give me an email, Ryan@medicalschoolhq.net. And just like last week, shoot us a picture on Twitter @MedicalSchoolHQ; where do you listen to this podcast mostly? Send us a picture where you’re at. We had one from Puerto Rico, we had a couple dashboard pictures, we had one cleaning which was awesome. So we enjoy those, love seeing that. Go to www.MedicalSchoolHQ.net/104 and let us know what you are thankful for. Again, www.MedicalSchoolHQ.net/104. Tell us what you’re thankful. I’d be interested to see whether it’s your ability to go to medical- or get into medical school, your ability to be premed, whatever it may be, come share your thankfulness there.

So as always I hope you join us next time here at the Medical School Headquarters.