I find myself comforted by the fact that I get bored during long surgeries. When they're interesting, surgeries definitely are fun to watch or to help with. I like sewing people back up and feeling the immediate gratification, so I can only imagine the satisfaction that must come with opening up someone's heart and making it better. But it's not worth spending a lifetime of not being able to take a break! A few years back, one of our UCI surgeons had a heart attack during a super long surgery. There was no one else who could take over, so he just had himself hooked up to a nitro IV and finished the surgery because he couldn't walk away and leave the patient flayed open on the table. Now that's just craziness. Admirable, certainly, but crazy nonetheless.
I find my boredom comforting because for a little while I thought surgery might sway me away from emergency medicine. Switching to surgery as my specialty choice, however, would throw my life into a vortex, because every extracurricular activity I've done so far, my whole medical career foundation, revolves around emergency medicine. Many ER doctors I know confessed to their utter boredom during their med school surgery rotations. One, very near and dear to me and who shall remain unnamed - a certain Dr. P - fell asleep while he was holding a patient's chest open with the retractor! So by being bored in surgeries sometimes, I know I'm on the right track.
3 comments:
A well-reasoned treatise. It's only when you start falling asleep during the emergencies that you have to start questioning your choice.
I hope the patient never knew that his flayed open chest was so mundane! Maybe you could get a discount on your bill for being interesting.
I think I might be "Dr. P" in my defense it was a Lower Anterior Resection... still YAWN!
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