4th year in the air.. help?!?

[Pir8DeacDoc]

So I'm a fourth year who really wanted to do surgery.. Planned on trying my hand at plastics. Did an away month and found it wasn't exactly what I had hoped. I felt things were pretty rigorous and wanted to consider something more lifestyle friendly like anesthesia. Did a rotation in that and didn't really care for it. As much as I fought it I've determined I'm one of those people that wants to do surgery (just not GS).. So here I am stuck in the midst of fourth year (past the deadlines) now having thoughts about ortho.


Anyone have any thoughts on whether I should consider a prelim year or try and find a research spot? Stick my head in the sand and do nothing?

Any thoughts/ideas/pep talks greatly appreciated.

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[lattimer13]

i'm getting an ulcer after reading your post. you should definitely go and talk to your faculty advisor ASAP...if you don't have one, find one. best of luck.

 

[turtle md]

So I'm a fourth year who really wanted to do surgery.. Planned on trying my hand at plastics. Did an away month and found it wasn't exactly what I had hoped. I felt things were pretty rigorous and wanted to consider something more lifestyle friendly like anesthesia. Did a rotation in that and didn't really care for it. As much as I fought it I've determined I'm one of those people that wants to do surgery (just not GS).. So here I am stuck in the midst of fourth year (past the deadlines) now having thoughts about ortho.


Anyone have any thoughts on whether I should consider a prelim year or try and find a research spot? Stick my head in the sand and do nothing?

Any thoughts/ideas/pep talks greatly appreciated.

If you thought plastics was rigorous, what do you think ortho will be like? They work really hard for five years, and THEN enjoy the benefits. Most traumas involve something ortho related. I see more ortho residents having a tough call then plastics. Surgery is a hard road. If you want lifestyle and surgery, Urology is an option. But lifestyle and surgery usually do NOT go together.

If you like procedures and lifestyle, consider EM.

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

To clarify a bit...


My away rotation in plastics was at probably one of/the busiest plastics places in the country (so I'm told)...

The 80 hours was never even a thought. The long and the short of it is that I can handle working hard, it just turned out that plastics not being all I had hoped combined with the really long hours made it not something I wanted to pursue. I can handle working hard, I just need to make sure it's worth it and in something that I really want to do.

 

[cytoborg]

Isn't plastics considered one of the "lifestyle" surgical subspecialties? After residency, of course. Pretty much any surgical residency is going to be tough. So you're right, you absolutely should pick something you love.

How about urology? And why don't you like GS?

 

[asdfaa]

And why don't you like GS?

He doesn't want to have to deal with butt surgery. That's always the answer.

 

[Lonestar]

dude chill out and smoke a cigar. Ortho might be a reach at this point. Doing a prelim surg year would be my guess. Well, good luck with the $hitty process called the match. Don't let the match ruin your 4th yr. You have earned it and dammit you are gonna enjoy it. Why worry be happy!

BTW, my plans for rads didn't work out in my 4th yr so i ended up in anesthesia (i did a rotation and felt so-so about it in my 4th yr). Scrambled into anesthesia and boy am i happy that i made the decision (against many people including the dean). Was tempted to do a prelim-med yr and reapply for rads (that would make it 6 yrs total for those who are counting). Ended up doing a cushy transitional yr as part of the anesthesia residency. And now i am very happy as a CA1. So the moral of this story is, by no means should you even consider internal medicine. Hope everything works out for you in the end.

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

Thanks for all the thoughts...


I think plastics can be a lifestyle field, if you work private practice. The academic guys I worked with on my away were working some pretty tough hours for attendings. of course a lot of their case load was trauma driven so that complicated things.

GS seems decent enough, I'm just not totally excited about vascular, CT, gastric bypass, etc. In other words, some of the core rotations in GS don't really do it for me. I think I'd be hard pressed to get excited about it. I find myself thinking more like a specialist, I prefer to focus on one body part/issue. Indeed this is a tough time for me. However, I am going to do what I can to enjoy fourth year and figure this out after most likely doing a surgery prelim year.