MedFamily

In this episode of Med Family, Eric and Karen continue their open discussion about life after an unexpected fellowship match outcome and what it means to pivot when carefully laid plans fall apart. Now in PGY-3 of internal medicine residency, Eric reflects on the professional uncertainty that follows a competitive match cycle. At the same time, Karen offers a perspective on supporting a medical career amid the demands of raising six children.The episode begins with an update on family life, including their return to homeschool co-op, therapy schedules, and the flexibility homeschooling provides for a household shaped by residency hours. Karen shares the curricula and tools they use—ranging from math and reading programs to Khan Academy—highlighting the adaptability required when teaching children with diverse learning needs.Eric then transitions into residency training, describing his current geriatrics rotation and how it contrasts with the ICU-heavy structure of their program. He reflects on the realities of long-term care medicine, end-of-life decision-making, and how these experiences have helped clarify his long-term career goals, even when those goals require reevaluation.A central focus of the episode is fellowship strategy. Eric and Karen discuss the role of away rotations, the advantages of home programs, and the often underappreciated influence of institutional politics, GME funding, and professional connections. They explore how fellowship selection extends beyond board scores and CVs, emphasizing the weight of advocacy, mentorship, and personal reputation within small professional networks.The episode closes with a realistic look at next steps: follow-up emails, outreach to mentors, exploring alternative and non-ACGME opportunities, and using lighter rotations to regroup and plan. Throughout, Eric and Karen maintain a reflective and transparent tone, offering listeners an honest account of medical training, resilience after disappointment, and the necessity of adapting when the path forward is no longer straightforward

After a long hiatus, Eric and Karen return to Med Family with a candid New Year check-in. In this episode, they catch up on the past six months of family life, residency, and the realities of parenting through sickness, ER visits, co-op schooling, and sleepless nights. Eric shares an honest reflection on the cardiology fellowship application process, the disappointment of not matching, and the emotional and logistical challenges that followed. Together, they discuss pivoting to non-ACGME cardiology-adjacent opportunities, navigating uncertainty, financial pressure, and faith during a season of transition. It’s an unfiltered conversation about perseverance, recalibrating goals, and taking the next step forward—one decision at a time.

We're back after a little break. In this episode, we try to catch you up on the goings-on and the new changes. We talk about how we're going to join a Coop, and Eric is going to CO for an away rotation for fellowship. Also, an update on all the items Eric is doing to improve his CV, including research, and 2 new podcasts: IM basics and Rebel Crit. Please stay tuned for updates on these.

ICU Nights and Fellowship Prep Long time hiatus, but we’re back on ICU nights. Updates from the prior weeks but the family is good and we’re grinding through the night rotation. Also, looking ahead we have the eye towards fellowship so we’re doing research and trying to set up an away rotation.

Catch Up: Admits and Pulm Rotations Multiple weeks since our last update. Halloween, election, admissions and pulmonology rotations have occurred.  Additionally, we talk about the stress of being a 2nd year resident. We hope to bring these episodes more frequently. 

Stepdown to Admissions Two weeks of Stepdown are over and now we are back on admissions. Karen joins this week and we discuss being a senior on stepdown, the end of life conversations, and research projects Eric has been working on. 

CGMs, Endocrine, and Testosterone Karen is back this week and we discuss the home life, clinical week, and Endocrinology. Lots covered in the topic and possibly some TMI regarding cycle tracking and Eric’s preoccupation with cool graphs. 

Mini Update: GI Bleed and BiPAP Mini Update. Night shift is a wrap and we are now in the clinic. For this update we review GI bleed management and BiPAPs. Hopefully, making them less scary.

Mini Update: Night Shift Quick night-time update. We’re on nights and 3 weeks in. Being a “senior” now entails Step down coverage and helping the interns. We cover procedures, ICU consult, and then just a tangent on program drama, sorry. Hopefully we can keep these updates coming

Mini Update: Pericarditis and Afib New mini-update experiment, trying something new with semi-weekly updates. This week is on pericarditis and afib. If you guessed Eric’s on a cardiology rotation you would be correct. I’ll try to be more organized next time. Sorry for the mistakes. 

ICU Month After 4 weeks of ICU days with 1 day off per week and some minor illnesses, we are back. We talk about the differences between a Step-down rotation and an ICU rotation and some of the unique aspects of the ICU that make it better and sometimes harder. 

Care Completion vs Continuity ICU Up Next The last few weeks included Infectious disease, clinic week, care clinic, and getting a new doomsday vehicle. It’s been busy and we talked about all the past events and upcoming rotations in the ICU. Thank you for sticking with us through PGY-1, looking forward to what PGY-2 will […]

Nights, Vacation, and Van Sorry for the delay in getting back on this podcast. We completed 2 weeks of nights, did a vacation where the sleep cycle slowly reverted to normal and 2 weeks of floors. We had a minor accident and the van is gone. Lastly, we briefly go over a study on AF […]

Match Week, Busy Hearts, Mint Trial Congrats to all MS4s who matched this week. We are truly happy for you and hope you enjoy the period before residency starts… I wish I could say residency was a breeze. We also recap a busy week on cardiology service, and lastly have a conversation regarding the new […]

Clinic Culture Reversal When everyone hates one thing it is hard to not join in but you forget the personal mental space charged by doing it. Changing how we think about the things we don’t like makes us dread doing them when we have to do them anyway. We also go into a couple of […]

Customer Service and Comfort Care Back again after 2 weeks on floors. 1 week on acute and another one on stepdown. We discussed some of the things we learned. I.e. ramblings on comfort care, medical students, and cutting down on to-dos during floor weeks. 

New Baby, New Study Plan We’re back from your hiatus with a brand-new baby. All are healthy and doing well. We discuss on this episode the birth, and the time off. Additionally, Eric is back at the clinic and starting a few new ideas to try to further his medical education during residency. 

Pulm Consults and Fellowship App Advice Another week on pulmonology and consulting in the hospital for the service. Thoracentesis, cancers, and bronchoscopy. Additionally, Eric had a brief conversation with a 3rd year resident who matched into a Cardiology fellowship and will relay some of the advice given. 

Consult Life with Pulm After weeks of floors and 1 week of clinic we are back on a consult service and life isn’t so bad. Karen is due in 1-2 weeks and we’re getting ready for the new arrival. Quick update this week, hope you all are good. 

The Burnout 6 months into this residency, it feels like I’ve hit a wall. The good news is, everyone else feels this way too.  We talk about what led up to this moment and what we are doing about it. Just keep swimming. 

Night Shift We are on night shift rotation. This episode discusses the sleep/wake schedule and its impact on family life. Additionally, we go over the day-to-day tasks and how the night is broken up. Its a busy rotation and not without its stresses. Sorry for the missed week. 

ED Rotation, Continuity Clinic, and 50 MME Max We finished our last week of ED and started continuity clinic. We discussed some lessons learned about maximum morphine mil-equivalents in opiate naive patients and got to sort of run a code. 

ED Didactics and M&Ms Update for the week. Karen does all the appointments and car updates. Eric continues with his ED shifts and attends his first ever and probably last ED didactics where they held an M&M. 

New Car, Night Shifts, and Bounce Backs Week 3 of Emergency Medicine and we’ve just completed 3 night shifts and will discuss the different approaches to patient care. Additionally, we talk about the process by which we replaced one of our vehicles. Again sorry for the missed week and late episode.

ED Shift and Interview Tips Started our ED 4 week rotation in Red Zone this week. We discuss the opportunities in the ED and learned experiences so far. Lastly, we talk about interviews. What to keep in mind while interviewing and things to watch for throughout the process.

Rapid Response To End The Rotation We capped of 8S with some excitement. Couldn’t have gotten through it without my team of interns who all stayed late and helped me out. Team work is great. We discuss this and other topics during this episode.

Consultant Woes and DNRs DNRs and sick patients are the norm for 8S. We discuss the conversations that need with family and the some of what DNR means. Additionally, we discuss some challenges with coordinating with consulting services.

Stepdown Revisited and M&M Thoughts Sorry for the late episode. We are back on floor rotations and back on 8S so Stepdown. We discuss GDMT and coordinating with consulting teams and MINOCA and whether Plavix is needed afterwards (its not). Lastly we discuss some takeaways from an M&M conference

Exam Efficacy and Grade 3 Recommendations Another week of infectious disease with light days heavy on studying. We talk about rectal exams, breast exams, and HOCM. There may have been some colorful commentary on the pros and cons of performing these exams and some pitfalls.

Infectious Disease Week 1 Wrapped up another week of continuity clinic and started a new rotation: infectious disease. Additionally, we went to an apple orchard and the kids had thoughts. Our youngest is in the room during this episode so excuse the extra distraction.

Sepsis Sim Lab Takeaways Continuity Clinic week with procedure training, Ultrasound, and high fidelity sim lab. We go over some pearls that Eric learned during the sim lab related to Sepsis and treating cholangitis. Additionally, we talk about the family plans for trips and exploration of our new state.

DKA, ITE and ERAS Busy week with a late recording. This week we did the ITE exam and worked on a CHF presentation. Additionally, there was some food poisoning. Still working through Admission Team and wanted to talk about ERAS and DKA.

From the Dentist and Into a Hurricane Last minute dental appointment throws the start of this week into chaos. We go over another week of admit team and things we’ve learned plus we discuss the topic on Reddit about efficiency vs writing a detailed note vs writing nothing worth reading.

Concerning WBC Count on Body Fluid or Traumatic Tap This is the second week of admit team. Learned how to look at body fluid cell counts and how to do a medical decision making documentation. Sorry that the sound quality wasn’t the best on the last episode, we are working to improve it since moving […]

Admit Team Week 1 The kids started homeschooling this week and Eric started Admit team. A new flow and different system of managing patient inflow. Some tough lessons are learned and ideas developed.

Continuity Clinic Week Sorry about last week’s episode’s posting error. This week we have Continuity Clinic in the AM and PM extra activities. Working towards Step 3 and getting home earlier than previous weeks.

Interns Who Write Everything Down and Interns Who Mess Up The Final Week of Step Down Internal Medicine Wards. What is the Triad for Cholangitis? Why do you give antibiotics to a patient with possible esophageal varices? Acute patients and lots of learning. Thanks for sticking with us. 

And Remember the AM Labs Another week on Inpatient Service. Between trying to remember everything about the patients, placing all the orders, and talking to the patient’s and their family, Interns need to have some idea what they are doing and why. This episode we talk about presentation, tricks to anticipate some questions during the […]

Why Aren’t the Daily Lab Orders In? Finished Neurology and Starting Step Down Inpatient. Day one: Disaster, and I Knew Nothing. Day 2, improved from playing with crayons. We talk about the struggles of making that transition from medical student to being the patient’s doctor. How that can be intimidating and how many you shouldn’t […]

Neurology Wrap Up and Non-Textbook Cases We wrap up this week on Neurology service and talk about some of the lessons we’ve learned and how we are taking advantage of the days off. Additionally, we talk about Eric planning on when to take Step 3. 

Starting Inpatient Neurology: What Would a Jury Think We’re back this week for an update. We started Residency this week with inpatient neurology. Eric and Karen go over what the rotation entails and the bits of wisdom given to us from the attendings. 

Special Episode With Dylan Thomas Pt. 2: The Better Side of Medical School This is our part 2 with Dylan Thomas. We discuss all things post Step 1. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to part 1, please go back and listen. Again a huge THANK YOU to Dylan Thomas for taking the […]

Special Episode: Dylan Thomas Interview Pt. I – The Origins and Pre-Step 1 Finally a special episode is coming out. Part 1 with Dylan Thomas, Trinity Student and soon to be doctor. In part one we talk about his journey to medical school and his pre-clinical years. Part 2 will be out next week!

Post Moving and Moving to SVG Advice It has been a few weeks since our last episode so here’s us catching you up. We accomplished the move and have most of our stuff in the new house. We traveled to Atlanta for Graduation, and hosted some family for a few days. Lastly, we wanted to […]

Moving Prep and NRMP Statistics Quick update on the moving progress and plans. We discuss also some NRMP statistics from the last match, looking at trends, and some urging to start working on your personal statement now if you are considering the MATCH process for 2024. 

Like Picking 4th Year Electives But With Less Prep Quick update on the week’s events and finally a little bit of medical life information! It’s not much but we submitted time off preferences and intern year elective preferences. Eric will share the advice he got from other interns and how he applied that advice in […]

Professional Loan for Residents This week we became home owners again, so lets talk about the loan and home buying process for future residents. Everything is covered in some fashion from the pre-approval to the counter offers.

Interview Questions Quick update on the week’s events and a discussion on the topic of Interview questions. Some review of what Eric found that worked well and what didn’t. Free advice, talk to your preceptors now for ideas. 

Part 2 of Rank Order List: The Last 5 Quick catch up on the weeks happenings and onto part 2 of our rank order list. Each program brought something different to the table and we had a system we used to rank. It may be different than others but yours should be based on what […]

Rank Order List Part 1- The Top 5 This is part 1 of a dive into our rank order list. We discuss the top 5 programs and why we ranked them were we did, what was good and what was not so good about each. The programs are Creighton AZ, Cape Fear NC, Magnolia MS, […]