ENT is a pretty fascinating field at first. The hours seem great, the anatomy rules, but you're going to be responsible for a lot of things in residency, like reconstruction.
Nothing has made me cry inside more than multiple 12+hour cases, and a few 18 hour cases without being allowed to perform bodily functions or eat/drink. That's probably the biggest pain, the cases involving flaps and the constant papaverine-ing and retraction. You have to enjoy working in a tiny space without wrecking nerves that get displaced by tumours and the long cases where you're dissecting a nerve off a tumour or doing a hemimaxillectomy. Kids in med school usually think of cases as just tubes and tonsils, but you get into huge cases like 8+hour neck dissections and you don't always get a surgical cure for some cancer surgeries.
Supercharged pieces of jejunum sound pretty cool, but you need to be strong to make it through the cases where you have a dissection and a graft to go through.
I'd probably do ENT because the attendings and residents are generally nicer than others, but I dunno, I just don't daydream about cochlear implants or facial trauma anymore.
If you're going to do anything surgical, TAKE CALL. None of this going home before cases are over for the day when people on the service are on call or seeing patients before it's post op check time.
The key to being a happy resident is falling into a good program and still liking that specialty when you've seen the worst, most strenuous parts consistently.
Your blog is so updated! :) most medical students' blogs that I found have entries that date back to 3 or 4 years ago. I am an incoming medical student as well but I will be studying in the Philippines since I am a Filipino. I felt anxious upon reading your entries even though I know for sure that there are huge differences between the US and Philippine setting. Although....I have heard there are similarities i.e. in how students are treated by their superiors. Anyhow, it still is interesting reading your blog. :) thank you for sharing and I hope I do pursue Medicine. Though I have enrolled in a school already, I am still having second thoughts!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your readership! I'm glad you follow my blog and feel that you gain something from it! School is tiring for sure, but I'm glad I can provide some insightful entries into medical training as a student. I definitely wished I had more insight into being a med student when I was younger.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in your studies!