Bart and I found out this week that his first externship site got canceled. But at least they were nice enough to give us less than two months' notice. Jerks.
We are pretty much heartbroken over this news, for so many reasons. This site was his V.A. site, which is required for him to graduate. They bailed on him because (after he personally set this site up with one of the O.D.s there) they were given more budget money and decided to hire an extra resident. The extra resident takes up the room they would have given Bart, but more importantly, the resident takes up the exam room Bart would have used. The only other sites left? One in Alabama and one 2 1/2 hours outside of Chicago--to which Bart would have no transportation.
Clearly, I'm also furious with these people. They never gave him a heads-up, and they have also completely put his education in jeopardy. I wish there was something we could do, but there isn't. We just have to try to switch things around, hope that the V.A. can take him in the fall, and hope that his school approves all of the maneuvering. If we do the switch we are praying for, Bart would miss out on 10 hours per week of Cornea/Contact Lens care. This is the area he wanted to specialize in, so now he could be getting screwed from two different directions here. Probably the worst thing we are up against is the fact that no one at his school is particularly helpful or reliable. It is as though we are standing alone and trying, frantically, to make some sense out of this mess.
This now leaves us asking where I will end up. We had planned on going home to the east coast in May, where I would stay permanently, and where Bart would be except for one quarter here in Chicago in the fall. Now, I'm not sure what I should do. I HATE my job. I actually almost quit this past week because it has gotten so bad (but we need the insurance, so I'm stuck). The only thing that has kept me going is that I knew I was going to be out of there forever in May. I honestly CANNOT stay there longer than that. Bart and I were so thrilled to be leaving this city behind us and heading back to our families, friends and country life. People, we had such fantasies. I had envisioned eating dinner on the deck as the sun went down with my family; listening to the tree frogs and the crickets at night, and smelling the good, clean air. I dreamed of having dinner with Bart's family at their home and after, sitting in the twilight on their enclosed porch and talking and laughing. We had planned to go fishing, kyacking, walking, picnicking. And now, we might lose a whole summer of that happiness with our families.
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