Thanks to the above poster for doing this. I have also been there and wanted to post something with the intention of being helpful to those who did not match.
It's been five years now, but I remember the day I got the phone call telling me I didn't match quite well. Many of you, like me, probably had no back-up plan in place and were not expecting this. I've met several people who didn't match over the last five years, and though I'm sure there are some exceptions out there everyone I've met seems like a great candidate, easy to work with and all around the type of person I'd like as a fellow resident. I don't understand how or why this happens. Five years later I still have no idea why it happened to me, though I asked everyone I could think of what was missing or wrong in my application, interview, hair color, whatever. No one as of yet has been able to help me explain it. However, as one of the people interviewing me recently for fellowship said, "it really doesn't matter at this point". That's the crux of what I wanted to say. Five years from now, this will be behind you. Other than putting me a year behind my peers and the expense of interviewing and moving twice, I cannot think of a long term negative consequence of my not matching the first time around. You will get through this.
Many good suggestions are given above, and I'd also say to look at previous years' posts titled not matching or black Monday or whatever in March. Much of the information in those posts was helpful for me.
I went the prelim surgery year route. I could not afford to delay graduation financially speaking. I had a family already, and needed to start working, and that was the most sure option for me to do so. There are several ways to do this, but as mentioned above you need to first figure out if you want to stick with ortho or not. It's not easy to stick with this and get in, but if you really want it, you can certainly make it happen. The only thing lower than an intern is a prelim intern, and if you take that route you'll see what I mean. However, you'll learn a ton, and after that year no one can question your resolve to be an orthopaedic surgeon. I use some of the intangeables I learned that year every day.
Good luck. PM me if I can be helpful.
