Surgery Reflections: Week 2 of 6

Another week on the breast surgery service has taught me the following things:

• I really enjoy the challenge of seeing patients in both clinic and OR setting. 
• The female surgeons I follow are super fashionable in clinic, but can also rock a pair of scrubs and bouffant hat in the OR. 
• Patients will sometimes outright say that they only want the attending surgeon to work on them ("Sorry I really like you, but I just don't want you touching me"--patient to both resident and me), but this is impossible and they have no choice at an academic institution (lucky for us). 
• The feeling of helping someone by removing cancer from their bodies is unmatched by anything else. 
• Breast surgeons are nice. They don't chew you out when you don't know things.
• I'm still terrible at breast and axilla anatomy. Everything looks the same inside. Sadface. 
• B said, "You were home at 4pm the other day? No wonder you love surgery." Obviously I need to rotate through more ORs before I can definitively say that surgery is for me, but yeah, the cushier hours of breast surgery would be awesome...but it's an additional 7 years of training after med school. I'll be 35 years old when I start practicing on my own. My peers will be 13 years out of college at their jobs. Strange to think about!
• I spoke to an R4 surgery resident and she said, "There are highs and lows. It's true for every program. My best friend is in Med Psych and she has a 9-5 job, but is burned out in other ways. Time will pass no matter what, so do what you love."