ENT and Fluids

[Foreverworthless]

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[FalconSlice]

Hello all,
I hope you all are doing well. This is sort of a dumb question, but how comfortable do you have to be/how exposed to mucus secretions do you have to be for ENT? I absolutely love head and neck anatomy and how there is a beautiful balance between medicine and surgery. I love CT surgery, but I hear that the lifestyle will kill you. So I have this love for two fields, both incredibly interesting and both very different. My caveat is mucus (I feel so dumb for it, but maybe you get sensitized?) thanks in advance.

Mucus is literally nothing compared to being elbow deep in feces from a bowel perf or fistulas oozing with pus. If you really love ENT, you gotta look past the mucus. But, then again, if you really love ENT, mucus is not a dealbreaker.

You'll be surprised what you get used to as time goes on.

 

[karayaa]

yes it is dumb to think about mucus when you're already interested in fields like this (if you really don't like mucus, go into ophthalmology or a non-surgical field - if you cut into the body, you're going to encounter mucus sometimes - hard to avoid). And yes you get sensitized to almost all of the visceral reactions people feel when first exposed to body fluids.
Have you rotated in either field yet, or any surgical field?
FWIW it's extremely rare for lifestyle to kill you after residency, unless you chose that for yourself

 

[Foreverworthless]

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[Foreverworthless]

Mucus is literally nothing compared to being elbow deep in feces from a bowel perf or fistulas oozing with pus. If you really love ENT, you gotta look past the mucus. But, then again, if you really love ENT, mucus is not a dealbreaker.

You'll be surprised what you get used to as time goes on.

That’s very true! Thanks for your response and perspective. I guess it’s like anatomy lab—first day I could not stand the thought of cutting skin, and then by the end I was really digging into it.

 

[7331poas]

yes it is dumb to think about mucus when you're already interested in fields like this (if you really don't like mucus, go into ophthalmology or a non-surgical field - if you cut into the body, you're going to encounter mucus sometimes - hard to avoid). And yes you get sensitized to almost all of the visceral reactions people feel when first exposed to body fluids.
Have you rotated in either field yet, or any surgical field?
FWIW it's extremely rare for lifestyle to kill you after residency, unless you chose that for yourself

Nah, even the gen surg residents hate cleaning poop on their demented patients with sacral wounds.

 

[karayaa]

I have only rotated in CT surgery so far. My first case I shadowed was 10 hours long, and even though my attending dismissed me at hour 5, I couldn’t leave I loved it that much.

regarding lifestyle, how do you mean? When people mean lifestyle do they mean during residency and then afterwards, you can control it?

Mostly when people say lifestyle they mean hours/week, on-call responsibilities, working nights. When pre-meds and sometimes med students talk about lifestyle, they often mean residency or academic medicine. But although residency can be hard (most surgical fields but not all) or cush (psych, physiatry, etc), your lifestyle after you finish training is (mostly) up to you. It depends on where you practice. Theoretically, for most fields, you can choose a practice setting that fits your overall goals. You can choose a surgery practice where you are in a large group and have call less frequently. Or where you only do outpatient surgeries and someone else takes care of your patients inside the hospital.
In most cases, working less means earning less money. Most people have geographic limitations so they don't prioritize lifestyle.
For ENT, certain surgeries are longer and more complicated (cancer, recon?) and patients sicker. You could work at a lower-volume place and refer those complicated cases to someone else. You could focus on clinic, in-office procedures, shorter/simpler surgeries. You can choose to have clinic 4 days/week, and operate 1 day/week, or 1 day every other week, etc. The number of clinic patients you see depends on how much money you want to make.
(This is all mostly assuming you're in private practice and have enough patients in your area who are looking for an ENT that you can decide how many you want to see)

 

[karayaa]

Nah, even the gen surg residents hate cleaning poop on their demented patients with sacral wounds.

I would say 'dislike' rather than 'hate' - but some people have an easier time tuning out stuff like that than others

 

[Foreverworthless]

Mostly when people say lifestyle they mean hours/week, on-call responsibilities, working nights. When pre-meds and sometimes med students talk about lifestyle, they often mean residency or academic medicine. But although residency can be hard (most surgical fields but not all) or cush (psych, physiatry, etc), your lifestyle after you finish training is (mostly) up to you. It depends on where you practice. Theoretically, for most fields, you can choose a practice setting that fits your overall goals. You can choose a surgery practice where you are in a large group and have call less frequently. Or where you only do outpatient surgeries and someone else takes care of your patients inside the hospital.
In most cases, working less means earning less money. Most people have geographic limitations so they don't prioritize lifestyle.
For ENT, certain surgeries are longer and more complicated (cancer, recon?) and patients sicker. You could work at a lower-volume place and refer those complicated cases to someone else. You could focus on clinic, in-office procedures, shorter/simpler surgeries. You can choose to have clinic 4 days/week, and operate 1 day/week, or 1 day every other week, etc. The number of clinic patients you see depends on how much money you want to make.
(This is all mostly assuming you're in private practice and have enough patients in your area who are looking for an ENT that you can decide how many you want to see)

Thanks so much!