I don't usually post on this forum, but I read it sometimes. I am 27 and I have a mitochondrial disorder (we think it is mitochondrial; we know it is metabolic). Anyway...

I recently finished medical school. I'm not doing a residency right now, because I have been in the hospital too much over the past year and a half to be able to show up for work often enough to make it work. I'm doing a Masters in Public Health degree right now and hopefully can get a little more stabilized in the meantime, so I can go back to school.

I wanted to tell you about a couple of people. There is a guy that goes to med school at UW Madison (working on his MD/PhD) who has been blind since he was a teenager. He has a degenerative disease that affects his optic nerves. He is a total inspiration, and one of the smartest guys I know.

The other person I wanted to tell you about is a PM&R physician at the Rehab Institute of Chicago. I am drawing a blank on her name right now, and I also don't know what specific disorder she has. But I do know that she is in a wheelchair and appears to have some spasticity, etc. People respond really well to her and she is great at what she does.

So, yes, you can do it...

BUT, be honest with yourself first. Do you have the stamina to make it through rotations, residency, etc (with reasonable accomodations, of course)? Do you have the physical capability to examine a patient, work for hours and hours on end, observe and sort of assist in the OR? If not, can you come up with alternate ways of doing stuff that would work (like my friend who is blind does)?

I'm not asking that stuff to be mean. I'm asking it because my own physical functioning has declined a lot in the past couple of years, and there are some things that I am not sure if I can do them anymore. It is just a big, big time and personal life investment... a big emotional investment... not to mention the money, etc... and once you get started on the whole med school tract, it is hard to get out of it easily if you need to. I have a ton of debt right now and am not sure how I am going to deal with it if this turns out that I can't do a residency. I also find that I am strangely unqualified to do a lot of "ordinary" jobs, and not quite licensed, so unable to do the jobs I am actually trained to do. Hence the grad school... way to pass time, defer loans, etc in a more forgiving environment.

Anyway, it sounds so discouraging at the end of the post, but what I really wanted to say was a cautious "go for it..." but be realistic about what you can and can't do, and know that there are other disabled physicians who are incredible at what they do. Don't let the disability itself be what keeps you from doing what you want to do... just respect your body's limits along the way, and be really honest with yourself.

If you want to talk about the med school thing, or know the name of my friend, etc, feel free to send me a pm.

Take care!