<p>Curm- that’s why DD chose a surgical rotation in a small setting, one student, no residents…she wants to cut. Had she chosen the large famous hospital option there would have been several residents and students, so she likely would have been relegated to holding retractors all day. </p>
<p>DD definitely prefers procedures versus managing continuity of care (fam med) since none of the diabetic patients seem to have any interest in managing their own care!</p>
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<p>Wanted to be sure to clarify this. I am talking about MS3 (surgical) rotations in ENT and Pediatric surgery not careers in these areas.</p>
<p>There are roughly 100 residency programs in ENT and less than half that in Ped Surgery and in some cases in Ped Surg they only accept every other year. That makes the competition for spots intense with successful candidates applying to virtually all the programs and being happy to match SOMEWHERE.</p>
<p>Most MS3s like to “get their hands dirty” and more actively participate in procedures so being an observer or simply holding retractors doesn’t get them very excited. Since most things trickle down, the seniors and fellows do all the “fun” stuff while the MS3s “watch and learn” because that’s the way it was when the seniors and fellows were MS3s…etc, etc…</p>
<p>S knew it was going to be that way so he decided to skip both during MS3 figuring he’d get plenty of exposure to both in his residency. He has said all along that Ped Surg was an area of potential interest but has zero exposure at this point…he has a Ped surg rotation this year where he’ll get his first taste of things.</p>
<p>He already knows he wants to do something requiring more fine motor skills and not “butts and guts” so vasular and Ped Surg are still in his top areas of interest.</p>
<p>Your kiddos will get excited about lots of different areas in MS3 and in some cases they will immediately know it’s not their thing. In S’s case it was medicine or as he called it “eternal medicine”…he said something like “I’d die if I had to try to treat people who don’t really want to get well all the time…” in typical guy fashion he wants to “fix something” which is why he chose surgery.</p>
<p>Enjoy the ride and don’t get too excited about anything just yet…most will vacillate all year…my kid was really hot on emergency medicine for a while due to supposed lifestyle then one week into his surgical rotation (which he did later in the year) he pronounced that he couldn’t see himself doing anything else.</p>
<p>FWIW…if you all didn’t watch NY Med go watch it online…it was terrific especially for those w/kids thinking about surgery. In one episode the chief resident said something like in his opinion the only people who should do a general surgery residency are people who can’t see themselves doing anything else and really, really want it above everything else…otherwise the beating (and it IS a beating) will be too hard to take.</p>
<p>Won’t share any stories but hospital at around 4:30-5 AM until 8-9 PM is pretty routine as is learning to survive on about 5-6 hours sleep. He’s had three patients write letters to superiors praising the care they received from him and has had head nurses lavish lots of praise so the positives help to temper the attendings who never say a nice word or who scream at everyone all the time. …</p>
<p>Again. Why would anyone choose to do to do this? I dunno.</p>
<p>Oh, and “the typical guy fashion” is actually a pretty good quote of what my daughter has told me. The quote about the non-compliant patients, too. lol</p>
<p>Dd wants to know why so many diabetics wait for their foot ulcer to reach the bone before coming in, I mean, yeah, you have neuropathy, you don’t feel it like normal, but can’t you see it looks bad before it has gone through all those layers of tissue?!</p>
<p>We are too busy eating ice cream and pie. ;)</p>
<p>Somehow I would imagine that you would NEVER be allowed to be non-compliant with DD in your life…she would beret you into obedience.</p>
<p>DD already called to ask Dad’s annual blood test results and suggested we should fax our labs each year so she can keep an eye on things…I don’t know how we have survived thus far! ;)</p>
<p>^^LMAO!</p>
<p>Had an “incident” last week which I texted about to D1 and D2 because it was very unsettling. D1 called to ask about other symptoms, assured me I wasn’t having a stroke (I didn’t think I was…) and that I probably needed to get a neuro consult. D2 asked (somewhat too eagerly for my taste) if I could send her my MRI so she could review it. </p>
<p>(Can you tell which one is the future EM doc and which one is the future neurologist?)</p>
<p>^HA!</p>
<p>D1 some times has her MRI as her facebook profile photo.</p>
<p>DS is a first-year student. First day of the school year, the students are in anatomy lab. Kind of in-your-face reality check. </p>
<p>So far so good though. Someone dropped out the school in the first week.</p>
<p>Someone dropped out the school in the first week.</p>
<p>I hear that this sort of thing happens, but I just can’t imagine after the whole 18+ month MCAT/app/interview process that after someone finally gets in, to quit after the first week!</p>
<p>^^Happened during D1’s MS!. First week. Walked into anatomy lab and walked right out again and never came back.</p>
<p>The good thing about the person who drops out the first week is that often some one is called up from the wait list to fill the spot. I wonder if that spot is filled, does the drop out get a refund?</p>
<p>DS did not complain about the anatomy lab when he was MS1 last year. I thought he might complain about the “smell” but he did not. However, in one year he did research as a premed, he was very concerned that he needed to handle some bacteria that could be quite deadly if infected.</p>
<p>He did mention that he wishes he could spend more time on study. But it appears to me that he has studied more since MS1. I think he almost never studied Saturday evening in college but he often does so now. He said many MS2 students study in the library for a very long time everyday, and if he does not study as much as his peer students, he would feel he might be behind. (We keep telling him that he does not have to study excessively, and as long as he studies enough to be a good enough doctor in any specialty, it would be good enough for him.)</p>
<p>yes, the spot was filled up and a new student came in the following week. refund? not sure. since the medical students did not get their tuition bills 3 weeks later (when the general university population begins its school year).</p>
<p>Re: studying as an M2, for what it’s worth, I’m writing this little post from the med lib at 12:20AM on a Wed night. LOL.</p>
<p>D is still reading/studying when she isn’t working or sleeping. She had her first weekend off (last weekend) since residency began in June. We went to an out of town wedding. We were surprised that one of her new bosses was there. He was a friend of the bride’s. Who knew?! D introduced us and when he saw H and I later, he was very positive and kind about the work D is doing. It kind of felt like Parent/Teacher conferences. You can never hear too many nice things about your kids, even when they are not kids anymore. :)</p>
<p>D loved anatomy lab… until they had to cut hair. That was a really tough day. D had four people in her group in that lab. Only two are doctors today.</p>
<p>^ Head/neck/brain was a tough dissection, from both a human/personal perspective as well as from a technically difficult one. I’m glad we started with back and arms!</p>
<p>I cannot do today’s conversation justice but in short “coolest day ever”. Started at 2:00 a.m. ended at 4:00 pm… 9 hours of surgery. No potty breaks, no lunch. On her feet the whole time. Got very interesting when a gunshot wound to the throat came in and that left D and the attending as the only two. She got to do lots of cool stuff. She was on cloud nine. Very complicated. Very scary. Said it was like a “first assist” role, whatever that is. Certainly made an impression on her. Something about bovy-ing. I have no idea what that is. And a trach out of the chest because of cancer in the trachea. </p>
<p>All I know is my kid is like a hog in slop. I never knew that her athletics would pay such dividends but being strong as an ox and possessing a world of stamina might just give her the edge she needs to get noticed by the right folks. The physical demands are probably something I really underestimated.</p>
<p>congrats to D curm. That is really cool (not for the victim) that she got to participate in a 9 hour surgery. I suspect it is quite rare to be only one of two doctors in a surgery that long and sounds like they had no time to wait. she is not a resident yet right?</p>
<p>Did the patient survive?</p>