Lap 7 Completed

Well, Juan is done with his third year of dental school. Wahoo!!!

But just when we thought we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, he goes to the OR.

(I'm writing this with a smile, I promise.)

Ever since we were dating, he has wanted to be an oral maxillofacial surgeon (the guy who cuts open the entire face and puts it all back together again,) but because of the possibility of being on-call all the time he decided that dentistry would be a profession that would allow for more family time.

After three years of dental school, he got to do a hospital oral surgery rotation two weeks ago, and the flame was reignited the second he stepped into the operating room. The first day was spent putting faces back together. One guy had had a gun shot to the face; another guy got so drunk he couldn't remember the next day how he had managed to get his face beat to a pulp; they also repaired a woman's eye socket so her eyeball could stay put. Pretty gross stuff to me, but fascinating to him. The next week he got to pull out some wisdom teeth and was so proficient that he caught the attention of a few professors who do that for a living. Every time he gets to work on a more complex case, he comes home with a visible elation.

After speaking to some residents and a few doctors, he got more information on the schedule of a practicing oral surgeon (which it really comes down to,) and our worries were a little eased; so we've decided to go full speed ahead and apply to some residencies in Philly and Oklahoma. This does not mean that he will automatically get a position in a program, but we're going forward with the mentality that if it happens--it happens, and if he doesn't make it in, well, then he still can practice dentistry and be very happy with that.

I'll be honest, I was not a huge fan of the idea and it has definitely taken some getting used to the fact that we may not be quite as near the end of school as we had thought; however, I know that if Juan doesn't go for it, he will probably have "what if..." regrets about it in the future. I have to laugh though, because we have friends whose brother-in-law is going that route, and when we heard about all the schooling he would have to go through (12+ years post-high school,) we were in disbelief that someone would possibly want to do that. Now Juan is that guy. It will just all come down to whether or not he can squeeze into a program.

He's going to Oklahoma for another externship in August, so hopefully that will help out, and he is now part of an exclusive oral surgery honors program at the school. We're truly seeing that every little step forward in this process is a blessing and that the further progress he makes, the more exciting it becomes. We'll see if this is what he's supposed to do for the rest of his life, or if it is just an experience to teach us a little somethin' about patience.

So, here's to another 4 years!