I just realized we hadn't blogged since our Rwanda trip. Part of the reason for that is that I felt I was unable to officially talk about the things that were going down. I'd been on the job hunt even before going to Rwanda, and I'd even had an interview at couple amazing practices in Lebanon. Unfortunately, Emily and I wanted to be closer to Nashville, so wanted to interview at a couple other places before making that decision. That first interview had been set up within a week of me starting the search, so I figured I'd find other job opportunities fairly easily. I was wrong. Apparently, Nashville's a pretty desirable place to be a pediatrician. I also hadn't counted on the difficulty of getting a job in a city that already had a pediatric residency, where the practices already knew the residents. Almost every phone call I made either ended with them saying that they weren't hiring or that they'd already hired someone from Vanderbilt. I felt a little cheated, since I'd lived in the Nashville area longer than many of the people from Vanderbilt, but that's the nature of the game.
Anyway, through the next several months I heard of a couple positions, and even had two interviews set up, but they were canceled one week before I flew back. It was the end of January, and while my other fellow residents were already starting to look for houses, I was still trying to get an interview. My aunt Pat was extremely helpful, and she gave me a huge list of contacts to call, but one by one each of the practices told me that they didn't have a spot for me. I was starting to enter panic mode, and I was regretting my decision to turn down the Lebanon job. It was looking like I was going to have to work in an urgent care center for the first year while I got my name out into the Nashville pediatric community.
My dad had sent me a list of places where Vandy medical students rotate, and as a last ditch effort I decided to call each and every one of the practices. I spent the afternoon calling over twenty locations, and each name slowly was crossed off. There ended up being about four places who said they weren't hiring, but they wanted me to send them my CV, just in case. A few days later, I was contacted by an office manager in Brentwood who stated that they were thinking of expanding. This was it... I finally had an interview! I threw together a hasty trip back to Tennessee, and during the next week I found two other places to interview. Where were these places while I had spent the last few months in panic mode?
Anyway, over the course of the next few weeks I had a phone interview, followed by an in-person interview with the folks at Brentwood Pediatrics. The phone interview was in the car as Emily and I drove up to the mall for a day of shopping. I told Emily as soon as I hung up that I hoped this one worked out, because it sounded exactly like what I was looking for. After a seemingly endless amount of phone calls and contract discussion, I've finally signed on to join them! The practice has been around about 5 years and was started by a pediatrician who left a much larger group to start her own office. They seem like they are very focused on treating the office workers and their families like one giant extended family, and I'm sure Emily and I are going to fit right in.
I honestly couldn't be happier, and I'm so excited to get started. One of my favorite parts about being a pediatrician is getting to know young families and watching their children grow up through the years. I've only been in Tucson for a short amount of time, but I already have a group of almost 3 year-olds who I've known since they first came home from the hospital nursery. I'm very sad to be leaving these kids and their parents, but at the same time, I can't wait to start a whole new round of introductions in Nashville, where this time the patients will actually be my own.
Anyway, that's a little idea of what's been going through my head the past few months. It's been extremely stressful, and I'm very lucky to have a loving wife who stood behind me and never lost faith. I've been at the brink of a breakdown several times, and she always helped me to keep my head up and keep looking. As a result, in just a few months Emily and I will be moving back to Nashville, closer to both of our families and countless friends we've dearly missed over the past two years. I love the city of Tucson and the University of Arizona, but I don't think I've ever not thought of Nashville as home. Now we are getting to the "fun" part of looking for houses and planning our move back. Hopefully, now that it's official, we can keep this blog a little more updated.
