Sustainability

Aside from learning basic clinical skills and how to function in a hospital environment, 3rd year is all about figuring out what you want to do with the rest of your life. As a somewhat eccentric anesthesiologist told us during orientation, you have to find something that is not just immediately interesting to you right now when everything is new and different, but something that you can see yourself doing for the next 40 years. The reason he chose anesthesia is that he enjoys gardening and spending time with his family. That's totally legitimate. A 4th year surgical resident told us that if you can do anything other than surgery and be satisfied, do it.

I think I may fall into that category...while I'm really enjoying pediatric surgery, the different types of cases, the active sense of doing, the definitive fixes, there's LOTS of things I see myself enjoying. And having a life outside of work is definitely one of them. I can do anything for a month (waitress at Cafe Lalo, live in a Mayan village) but when you start talking about years and years of waking up at 3:30 am it becomes a different story. I have so much respect for the residents and fellows who still somehow manage to be pretty nice most of the time, but I don't know if that's the life for me. So what is?

I got to see a laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication yesterday which was pretty cool (except the kid is now retching uncontrollably). Anatomy class (even a whole year of being an anatomy AI) doesn't really prepare you for being in the living, breathing abdomen. I also got to sew up an incision on a kid who received a Portacath! And I think I did a decent job. Other than that I've seen a PEG placement, an abscess drainage, excision of a lymphangioma and a pilomyxoma, another hernia repair and a fun proctoscopy. I guess in surgery you never know what you're going to find...but already none of the med students are super excited about watching a portacath placement...or if we are it's because we might have a chance to cut, sew or inject. And after you've done that hundreds of times then it really might get a little boring and repetitive. As it should, as do most things. That was the anesthesiologist's second point...if most of your job doesn't become second nature and not constantly challenging, you're probably not doing it well. Now I just need to find a specialty that will be interesting for years to come. Or maybe it's the patients that will continue to surprise you and keep things fresh no matter what.