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| A favorite spot in Palo Alto |
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| Hanging out |
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| My typical travel companion |
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| Who needs a pillow when you've got a baby |
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| I think we have more pictures of Todd asleep than awake |
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| The "Rock" |
So Todd graduated high school in 1994, in 1998 he graduated from college, and in 2003 he completed medical school. This may seem like a history book as all those events are so far in the past and they are, far in the past. The thing is he's about to end this long journey we have been on and we are all having a little struggle trying to mentally move on. Translation: the idea of him getting a real job, you know one that pays you what your skills are worth, is a little daunting. Truthfully, I am just looking for an excuse to brag about my super awesome husband and this seemed like a good moment to do so. In 1998 something amazing happened (besides us getting married) Todd got rejected from all the med schools he applied to. It was a blow to us as it had been the "next step" and we were not sure what to do. On the suggestion of a college advisor we moved to Texas. We didn't know anyone there and had never even been there. But we packed up our belongings, which were essentially our wedding gifts, and drove across the country. We rented an apartment complete with cockroaches. Then went and got jobs, real ones that sucked, well mine did Todds was super easy. After a year Todd applied again, this time he was still a California resident so he was still not all that hopeful but Texas Tech University offered him a spot and we were onto the next step. Lubbock Texas is the flattest place on earth, we lived by a cotton field, and were the frequent recipients to smells that cannot be described. However, it would become our home for 4 years and we would make friends, have kids, and enjoy our lives there. Todd I think somewhat motivated by his struggle(though he'd been a good applicant) to get into medical school turned himself into the perfect Medical student, and he was. He had perfect grades and earned himself AOA which is an award that was given to the top medical students(it's a big deal.) He had also done a lot of research while there and was set to be a very good applicant to get a plastic surgery spot. He got tons of interviews at great schools, Brown, Georgetown, USC, Wake Forest, Dartmouth, and many many others. Then it came time to make the rank list. In order to get a spot in a residency you make a rank list putting the programs you got interviews at in a ordered list and the programs do the same. Then on March 15th or there abouts they have Match Day where all the graduating medical students find out at the same time, where they are going. Todd had interviewed at 23 plastic surgery programs. But they always suggest when you interview for a competitive residency spot, which plastics is, you have a couple "back up" interviews. So in this case Todd interviewed at one general surgery program, Stanford. He was almost guaranteed he would match in a plastics program. But when we went to make the match list he would do something that would be a huge risk. He wanted to do plastics, but he wanted to go to Stanford and if he did general surgery there he could do a fellowship after and become a plastic surgeon that way. And though everyone thought we were crazy, his rank list was this:
1. Stanford Plastic Surgery
2. Stanford General Surgery
3. 22 other Plastic Programs
What this meant was that if he did not match into Stanford's plastic program he would match in their general surgery program. He essentially was giving up a plastic surgery spot in order to go to Stanford, and that was a risk.
Match day. Todd and his friend Aaron had befriended the secretary at the medical school and though she did not know which program she knew that one of them had matched at Stanford. Too bad she didn't know that information did not actually clear anything up. We found out he matched in general and we were happy. It was set and we moved to Palo Alto.
Ahhh Palo Alto. I'm proud that from day one we never took for granted the fact we lived in such a wonderful place. I think we could spend days on the topic of Palo Alto and what we like about it but it was a great place to be. The weather alone makes it worth the high price it takes to live there. While we were there we rented out a bedroom in our tiny 2 bedroom apartment to visiting medical students. This was in the glory days of home lending where we were able to get a 0% down, no PMI, loan all because Todd was a doctor. So we used the money we earned renting our bedroom out and bought a house in Redding as an investment.
Meanwhile Todd pushed through what would become known as the "lost decade" in training for his surgical specialty. It's a little hard to explain to people who are not familiar how "normal" things like leaving at 4:30am and getting home at 10pm become. Or how I have developed the ability to sleep through not only his pager going off but the subsequent phone call that will inevitably ensue. But obviously I was not the one who suffered the most. Todd took the brunt of that. After 2 years of general surgery Todd left the program as required to do "Research." Research normally entails 2 years with Rats. But as Todd had done a lot of research during his Medical school years, he killed a lot of cats, he asked if he could instead go to business school. So he started to process of applying to Business schools. It was a little funny as he had to go back to Jr College to complete some prerequisites. Then he started to get into some great programs. Ultimately he got into Berkelys Haas School of Business and we made the move to Berkely. Haas is consistently ranked in the top 10 business schools in the world so it was no small feet for him to go there. We moved to the East bay and built a life there. We purchased a crazy 4 unit building where we would like and remodel for 2 years while taking in a magnificent view of the bay. While there we had the two boys. Austin was about 3 and Jackson was under one when we first moved there. I started working in Real Estate and really enjoyed it. The boys we can say went to Berkely as they went to preschool there.
Also while there Todd began his illustrious moonlighting career. This could be a book unto itself. Todd had found several opportunities to work in the CVICU at hospitals in the bay. Mainly San Francisco and Oakland. He would go to school during the day and work at night....every day....every night. It was crazy. He literally would have like 1 hour off sometimes between jobs and somehow he managed to keep it all together. We ate more dinners in hospitals together than we ever did at home during that time. Todd also celebrated at least 3 birthdays in the conference room of Summit Medical Center.
Then it was finally Todd's turn to take some time. He had been planning to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail(PCT) for years so after graduating with his MBA he set out in 2007 to do the whole trail. The kids and I drove him to the Mexican boarder where he set off. About a month in things were going great and he called me. He asked "What's the one thing I would come off the trail for?" I actually knew. A spot in plastic surgery at Stanford. It was actually a small miracle. A 3rd year resident had failed to pass her boards and thus was not going to be able to continue in the program. This had only happened I think once before in the history of the program. And the spot had to be filled by a 3rd year resident, which Todd was. It would put an end or at least a pause in one dream and opened another. So rather abruptly we packed up and moved back to Stanford.
This time with the benefit of Todds moonlighting we rented a house. Renting a house in Palo Alto is a big deal and when I found one that was at the top of our budget it was like this. 1100 square feet, built in 1930 and NOTHING had been done to it since. It was old, tiny, and charming. When Todd first saw it I think he thought I was completely crazy. And you would too if you knew what our rent was. But we were happy there. Not long after we moved back we got a small surprise. We had decided to try once more for a girl. Barely pregnant I went to the doctor and got a surprise. There were two babies. I still remember the moment where I felt like I was having an out of body experience. I remember walking through Target telling Todd the news and having to repeat about 10 times I was not kidding. Our family would grow from 2 wonderful children to 4. Todd would finish up his residency and would leave a Stanford trained Plastic surgeon with an MBA from UC Berkeley.
We then went to Europe and then moved here to Virginia where he is now doing a Hand surgery Fellowship.
Todd is a quiet introvert. He walked, with the exception of a stint with my Dad, the whole way from Mexico to Canada alone. Among his MANY talents he can paint water colors amazingly, run marathons, ski like a pro, bmx bikes, takes amazing photos, gives the best hugs, gives the worst back rubs, and is truly a good human being. There are not a lot of moments where I get to see him at work, but I have been stopped on a couple of occasions by people who knew I was his wife and they were patients of his. I can see in their eyes the gratitude and relief that he was there for them. And in a profession that takes so much of his time and in a job where he has to frequently give the best of himself at work I am proud to know that what he does makes a difference in the lives of so many that he sees. He is neither proud of boisterous about what he does, and frequently I have to drag out of him what he did that day, but it's amazing what he does. Even after all this training he will spend hours studying and reading up on what he will be doing the next day, when I object his response is typically "[He's] cutting on flesh tomorrow and [he]wants to be prepared." It's hard to object then. Mainly he has blessed our lives by just letting us be a part of it. He makes a difficult situation not only doable but enjoyable and turns it into a journey, because as his senior quote says, "It's the Journey that matters in the end."
