Comments on: Really, What’s So Great About Surgery?

By: some med student

some med student — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:25:47 +0000

What confuses me is parents that push their kids into medicine and even further surgery. I chose medicine on my own and have picked a specialty I have fallen in love with. My parents played no role in my career choice, but yes, there was nothing else in the world they wanted more than for me to be a doctor. Neither are physicians, neither even work in healthcare, but from their encounters with physicians in clinics, they got the impression that doctors make big dollars by ripping people off with a slip of their pen on prescription pads. So they want their daughter to be like that as well despite the fact that they have been very unhappy with their own healthcare services…

I just don’t understand parents that try to push their children into careers that they know nothing about and completely based on their own speculation. I’m glad I love medicine, but the training has thus far taken a huge toll. And surgery on top of that! I commend people that do it for humanitarian reasons because the world does need them. But my father…well, he thinks surgery is a easy road to fancy cars and bling. He keeps trying to hook me up with surgeons overseas to get practice cutting, he thinks all surgeons do is cut. Far from the truth!! Now my parents complain that I’m never available and I don’t call on a daily basis with medical advice for them (I’m a third year on surgery right now). They attribute this to laziness on my part…Well excuse me but I have not slept in 30 hours, I wake up at 4am daily asking about flatulence from total strangers, and have to study for the shelf… Whenever I try to explain to my dad that surgery can offer a tough lifestyle as verified by some attendings, his response is that surgeons get overpaid and had life so easy that they became spoiled and have nothing better to do than complain! wtf?!

Both my parents are unhappy with the specialty I have settled on and hope I become a surgeon one day. I love the specialty I’ve decided on, I’ve rotated through it, attendings say I rock at it, and it offers a superb lifestyle for time for a family. Surgery probably works great for some. But seriously why the hell would I want to pursue it?!?! The hours for me are long, the material just does not stick for me, I can’t suture worth crap, I have butter fingers to top it off too =/.

By: dude

dude — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:21:38 +0000

subspecialties are vastly, VASTLY better lifestyles (generally speaking…. of courses there are certainly subspecialty programs that abuse their residents, too).

By: Hoover

Hoover — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:46:53 +0000

It’s more GSurg focused — I don’t know a whole lot about the ENT lifestyle. However, it’s a surgical subspecialty so I’m sure it isn’t the most lifestyle-friendly specialty.

By: bronx43

bronx43 — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:19:17 +0000

Is this only representative of General Surgery or are all the specialty surgeries (ophthalmology, ENT, urology, etc) the same? I’m really interested in ENT, but if the six year residency is going to be hell, then I may have to look elsewhere.

By: Someonect

Someonect — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:42:22 +0000

i read this and remembered my experiences on general surgery as an intern (pre-80hr), but life is not like that after residency. most surgical residencies aren’t as bad as people complain about (but many are). an some people just like to complain to let people know how hard they work, especially in general surgery.

do surgeons work hard? yes. is their life like a perpetual internship? no. the question you have to ask is, what do you want to do with the rest of your life? hoover, that is a point that you make many times throughout your posts. is it worth it? for me, it wasn’t as bad as i expected. but, i am not a complainer.