Surgery Recap

I took my Surgery shelf exam yesterday, which means two things: I'm officially done with third year (well, minus that pesky Internal Medicine shelf exam that I had postponed earlier and need to make up in June), and more excitingly for you, it's time for a recap of the pros and cons of being a surgeon.

Those of you whom I've talked to about this know that my thoughts on surgery flip flop approximately once every two hours.  Although I'm beyond ecstatic about my decision to pursue a career in Pediatrics, I'm sure I'll always wonder what it would have been like to go into Surgery instead.  And in another life, I think I would have made a great one.  But putting my baseless pride aside, there are still many reasons why I should or should not become a surgeon:

Pros:
- There's no doubt about it: surgery is pretty freaking awesome.  You get to identify a problem and fix it immediately.  For the most part, people love and admire their surgeons for what they do.  You know just as well as I do that I crave people's love and admiration.
- I enjoy suturing, and I think that I'm pretty good at it, too.  I like playing instruments, so it's not surprising that I also like playing with surgical instruments.
- Surgical clinics are awesome because they're so problem-focused.  No need to mull over all of the patient's medical problems, because that's why they have their primary care provider.

Cons:
- The hours.  I'm not talking about the 2002 Nicole Kidman movie, I'm talking about the ridiculously long work hours and the insanely frequent call nights.  Sure, I can do it now when I'm 24, but will I still want to be doing it when I'm 42?  I honestly don't know, but chances are that I won't.
- The strong personalities.  Don't get me wrong: I think it takes someone who is Type A to run a good operating room, but I don't know if I can work with such intense people on a daily basis.
- The patient contact.  I prefer to spend more time with my patients awake than asleep.  I also like getting to know them over a long period of time, not just during their brief preoperative and postoperative visits.

Welp, there's no denying that a part of me will always love the idea of surgery.  So if that's what you happen to be going into, you can bet that I'm going to try to live vicariously through you.