By George, she's got it!*

So Mr. wasn't as thrilled with otolaryngology as I was. Basically, I think my 'Eureka!' moment should have come a year earlier when he had time to get excited about it, shadow doctors, scrub in on surgeries, etc. BUT, he is considering it. In fact, I think it's basically down to 2. Two high-paying, uber competitive surgical specialties that begin with the letter 'O' (in order of likelihood):

1. Orthopedics
2. Otolaryngology (yes, I really like that word)

When we both took a look at the little data that we could find, I've learned that when comparing the two, the pay for otolaryngology isn't quite as high and the hours (after residency) aren't that much better. That said, I'm still pulling for ENT over Ortho. I can't really explain why. Maybe it's because the only medical problems I've ever had have been in in my head and neck? Or because I'm a singer and thus have a fascination with the vocal cords? Or perhaps because I've read about ortho being bad enough times that I have this notion that it's very very very bad and anyone who chooses it hates sunshine and happiness. Or maybe it's a combination of those things. Who knows. I just have to keep repeating the mantra I wrote yesterday: it's important to find the right speciality for him, because if he's miserable in his job, he'll be miserable at home, and I won't want to see him those extra hours throughout the week anyway!

Regardless of which he chooses, though, my pseudo-obsession with the idea of otolaryngology finally made the whole location part of residency search 'click' with me. After my blog post, I went to go find the various match statistics and research the different residencies. This past year, there were 273 otolaryngology spots to be filled. By comparison, Ortho, also very competitive, has 636 spots. A lot of programs only have 2 ENT spots to fill. Yikes! Mr.'s a competitive candidate, but that doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. I started thinking, 'okay, we have to apply to every single program in the midwest and NYC as well as Baltimore, Tennessee, and certain programs in the South. Maybe we should throw Connecticut and Boston into the mix, too. And well, since Pennsylvania is between NYC and the midwest, we might as well look there as well. Oh, what the hell - lets just apply to all of them and see where he gets interviews.' Oh. yeah. That's how it works. Maybe people going into peds or medicine have some options with regards to region, but with the competitive specialties, you just have to go where you can.
I don't know why it took me so long to get that. I think I had just been reading too many message board posts saying 'I have a family so I'm only looking in x area' that made me angry Mr. didn't have the same mentality. But at the end of the day, you just have to go where you match. And in our case (competitive as we are), not matching is not an option.

That said, I still hope he ranks certain midwestern locations rather high... :)


*Bonus points for correctly naming that musical
**Double bonus points for naming the song in said musical
Googling is cheating. ;)