I just want to say I totally agree with drusso. I think you might have read the couple of threads I have been posting about anesthesiology.
I am an anesthesia resident and my mother is actually an anesthesiologist. I was like you in a way when I was finishing medical school. I could not decide on anything, and I thought anesthesia had a great lifestyle (my mother warned me!) and I liked the income, so I thought I would go for it... big mistake (for me).
Let me give you these insights on the lifestyle of an anesthesiologist:
1) Yes, it is true that new graduates are getting paid well, but with the recent increase in applicants and the subsequent reduction in the current shortage of anesthesiologists, I feel confident in saying that those bonuses and salaries will decrease. My own attendings have told me that I should not look as forward to the job situation in the future as my senior residents are. Furthermore, Floyd77803's comment about CRNAs is valid. Believe me, they are capable of managing the most complex of cases and their rates are considerably less than anesthesiologists. They have a serious lobby in place in the federal government to abolish the requirement that they be supervised.
2) I don't think the hours are very good at all (again, my mother warned me). Granted I am a resident, but just when you think your day is over, you will be asked to take over someone else's room or you will have to do add-on cases. You actually never know when you can leave - it's very unpredictable. This is true for both attendings and residents. You can't set your own hours - you will be getting up early every day and you can't take off half-days if you want. As a resident you will not see sunrise nor sunlight during the day - maybe if you are lucky you will see sunset. You will be in ONE OR all day every day.
3) I think the worst part of the job is the horrible stress. You are constantly vigilantly watching the monitors for arrthymias, hypotension, etc. You are responsible for every heartbeat, every blood pressure reading, and every breath. It is really frightening to suddenly look up, see a blood pressure of 60/30, look over the curtain and see blood everywhere. Even if the surgeon caused the problem, it is your responsibility to fix it so the patient can survive. Also, you might be thinking that if you are constantly watching what's happening this won't happen to you. But it will - a patient can loose 1 liter of blood in seconds...
4) I could go on with a huge list of negatives about this field, but I won't. I will just add that you will not be respected in this field. The surgeons have no idea what you do, and they don't care. They have no respect for you. Nor do many of the nurses in the room ( I think that's because they know that you are replaceable by a CRNA). (And it's not like you interact with these people for a few minutes and then you can let it go - you will be with these people the entire day and it can be very frustrating.) Even many patients have no idea the degree of risk they are assuming in undergoing anesthesia. I am frightened for them!
This field has totally changed my attitude about medicine. I feel so anxious and burnt out.
I think the idea that anesthesia has a great lifestyle stems from the view that they have no long-term responsibility for patient care (i.e., no phone calls in the middle of the night). Well, the degree of responsibility you have for someone's life while in the OR more than makes up for that. You can easily cause major problems, or you will be trying to save the patient from the surgeon's problems. It is incredibly stressful. If you want the better lifestyle, I highly recommend taking drusso's advice. Of course, you will never know what it is really like, until you are there and have the responsibility (like me). I strongly recommend you spend some serious time with anesthesia attendings and residents (i.e., take call to see the ruptured AAA and trauma in the middle of the night). I just don't want you or anyone else to go into anesthesia as blindly as I did - make an informed decision about your career.
Sorry to be so "preachy." Please let me know if I can provide you with anymore information...