Nightmare!!

In Oral Surgery - your first goal is to successfully finish a residency. Your next goal is to become board certified. There are two national boards you have to pass to become so. The first one is written and you are eligible to take that 6 months after finishing your residency. You must pass the written board before you can take the oral board (the second part). Daniel took his written boards in January 2006 and thankfully passed. He was then eligible to take the oral board (which means you are sitting in front of a panel of doctors that throw senarios at you - there are four sections so you are sitting in front of 4 different panels). His plan was to take the review course in the fall of 2006 and take the exam in Feb 2007. Then he was called to Iraq and missed the review courses and didn't get home until 6 weeks before the test. In short, he did NOT take the test last year.

He did spend 9 grueling days in Denver in November of 2007 at a board review course. He has spent every spare waking moment since Christmas either at the hospital medical library or in his little cold corner of the basement with the space heater running. He has gotten up at 5 am to study, goes to work, studies at lunch, comes home for dinner, disappears to the basement, comes up to say good night to the kids and tuck them in, goes back to the basement until 11pm and then crashes in bed. I am SICK of that schedule and I know he is too. He has taken off the entire week before the test to be able to study from sun up to sun down.

His test is scheduled for tomorrow, Feb 14th first thing in the morning. If you do not check into the hotel, where they are giving the test, sometime the day before you miss your opportunity and have to wait until next year to take it.

Tuesday the 12th I got up and turned on the weather and news like I do every morning as I get the kids ready for school. I saw that the next day, Wed the 13th, we were supposed to have significant icing first thing in the morning. His plane was due to leave at 7:30 am. So he decided to call the airlines and see if he could get out Tues night. The told us that no weather "alert" had been given so he would have to pay to change that ticket. (pay almost as much as we had already paid for the ticket). He desperately didn't want to miss his test so he paid.

We had been having light snow on Tues but nothing accumulating etc... He made it to the airport in plenty of time. His plane was due to leave at 6 pm. I called shortly before and he said the plane they were supposed to be on hadn't arrived. They were delayed until 8:10 pm. Meanwhile the weather was getting worse - freezing rain started to pour!! I called him again - his plane was canceled. He was scheduled to leave the next morning on the flight he had been on originally - WHAT A WASTE OF ALOT OF $!!! (We are working on getting that refunded - wish us luck) He spent the night in Harrisburg (only 30 minutes from home) so he wouldn't have to drive in the icy weather.

He called at 7:30 am. His direct flight to Dallas had been delayed indifinitely - due to mechanical problems. (the whole reason we paid so much for this flight in the beginning was it was a direct flight out of Harrisburg which is so close to home) Now we were wishing he was at a big airport with a lot more options.

They rebooked him on an 11:15am flight to New York La Guardia. But I then saw on the weather channel that La Guardia was running 290 min delays. When I looked his specific flight up - he was supposed to leave from New York at 1:30 - they are showing a 90 minute delay. He should leave at 3pm.

I just called him again. It's noon here. I was hoping to get his machine so I knew he got on his flight. He answered. They are now supposed to be leaving at 2:20 pm. I guess that means he'll miss his connection in New York, unless it is delayed further also. There are a few more flights from La Guardia to Dallas later in the day so will all of you please PRAY that he gets to Dallas safely tonight!!!!

I really don't want all of his study time to be wasted and I really really don't want to do this again next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!