general surgery?

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would i be an idiot to go into general surgery and sacrifice my 20's? lol.


i liked anesthesia and would probably be close to as happy with ANE+CC.


any advice from people who struggled with Gen Surg vs. Anesthesia?

 

[maceo]

would i be an idiot to go into general surgery and sacrifice my 20's? lol.


i liked anesthesia and would probably be close to as happy with ANE+CC.


any advice from people who struggled with Gen Surg vs. Anesthesia?

2 different fields

if you like operating you wont like anesthesia. plain and simple.

 

[RussianJoo]

I don't know I like operating.. but i like anesthesia slightly more. they're totally different but that doesn't mean you can't like both. In the end though I am picking anesthesia because I like the field slightly better than surgery, and can live without cutting people or being in the spot light. I was a lineman in my high school football team, and feel that anesthesia is a lot like being a lineman. you need a solid offensive line to be able to move the ball down the field and score, but the linemen rarely get credit for winning the game.

surgery is a very rewarding field, if you love it you shouldn't be pushed away by the hard work, any field in medicine is hard especially as a resident.

 

[cfdavid]

I don't know I like operating.. but i like anesthesia slightly more. they're totally different but that doesn't mean you can't like both. In the end though I am picking anesthesia because I like the field slightly better than surgery, and can live without cutting people or being in the spot light. I was a lineman in my high school football team, and feel that anesthesia is a lot like being a lineman. you need a solid offensive line to be able to move the ball down the field and score, but the linemen rarely get credit for winning the game.

surgery is a very rewarding field, if you love it you shouldn't be pushed away by the hard work, any field in medicine is hard especially as a resident.

lol I like the sports analogy. I don't like surgery at all, but feel similarly about the "lime light". I couldn't care too much less about that. One thing I really like about the OR in general is the team environment. And to leave a sports analogy of my own, when I play hockey, I tally up way more assists than goals.

 

[Hockeyguy]

would i be an idiot to go into general surgery and sacrifice my 20's? lol.


i liked anesthesia and would probably be close to as happy with ANE+CC.


any advice from people who struggled with Gen Surg vs. Anesthesia?

I strugled greatly with this very question. In fact I took a GS intern year just to make sure. I obviously ended up in Anesthesiology. At the time I thought Anesthesiology would be a better fit for me. What really turned me off to GS was dealing with post-op complications. I'll never forget the dude who literally died a slow painful death from entero-cutaneous fistulas. In Anesthesia your complications ussually resolve or can be treated in the OR. In other words when your day is done you are done. That being said I don't feel that way anymore. If I could go back I have say I would have done Surgery and done vascular. They do some cool surgeries and are ussually a good group of guys. You have to what your heart tells you. I don't think you can wrong in either field.

 

[daki]

I strugled greatly with this very question. In fact I took a GS intern year just to make sure. I obviously ended up in Anesthesiology. At the time I thought Anesthesiology would be a better fit for me. What really turned me off to GS was dealing with post-op complications. I'll never forget the dude who literally died a slow painful death from entero-cutaneous fistulas. In Anesthesia your complications ussually resolve or can be treated in the OR. In other words when your day is done you are done. That being said I don't feel that way anymore. If I could go back I have say I would have done Surgery and done vascular. They do some cool surgeries and are ussually a good group of guys. You have to what your heart tells you. I don't think you can wrong in either field.

I continue to struggle with this question, even now as I begin my prelim surgery year. And took the prelim surg for the very same reason: just to make sure. Haven't made sure yet, hoping that by the end of the year things will be more clear to me as to which side of the curtain I really belong...

 

[waterhammer]

I'm pretty much sold on anesthesiology after an initial interest in gen surg. I was thinking about doing a prelim surgical year, however, to be as sure as possible.

In applying for the prelim year, should I get more LORs from surgeons? I will have 1 for sure, maybe 2, for my anesthesia application. Also, how did you write the personal statement? I was thinking of just adding an extra paragraph about how the prelim year would benefit my future anesthesiology pursuits.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Southpaw]

would i be an idiot to go into general surgery and sacrifice my 20's? lol.


i liked anesthesia and would probably be close to as happy with ANE+CC.


any advice from people who struggled with Gen Surg vs. Anesthesia?

Can't help you with GS vs. Anesthesiology, but I did struggle with Ortho vs. Cardiology vs. Anesthesiology. Three very different fields, and I liked them each for very different reasons. Ultimately, I felt like Ortho would narrow my scope too much for my liking. I loved the procedural aspect of Cardiology, but I've rarely been bored as much as I was in Cardio clinic. Anesthesiology offered hands-on procedures, and lots of them, quick decision making and thinking on the fly, crossed many spectrums of medicine, and the fellowship opportunities are vastly different from one another and only require one extra year of training. But, if you're not okay with not getting the glory or your ego stroked, don't go into anesthesiology.

If CC is your goal, it's 5 years for Anesthesiology and 6-8 years for GS (5-6 years of GS residency + 1-2 years of Trauma/CC fellowship).

Choosing a specialty is often a very difficult choice. Ultimately, you'll end up picking the one you like just a little more than the other. You can try the prelim surgery year if you want, but you'll likely just get beat into the ground and be more of a floor monkey rather than actually getting to see some surgery. Regardless, good luck!

 

[Noyac]

I don't know I like operating.. but i like anesthesia slightly more. they're totally different but that doesn't mean you can't like both. In the end though I am picking anesthesia because I like the field slightly better than surgery, and can live without cutting people or being in the spot light. I was a lineman in my high school football team, and feel that anesthesia is a lot like being a lineman. you need a solid offensive line to be able to move the ball down the field and score, but the linemen rarely get credit for winning the game.

surgery is a very rewarding field, if you love it you shouldn't be pushed away by the hard work, any field in medicine is hard especially as a resident.

Great analogy there Joo. But I've always looked at the OR as a sports team, but in a different sport. See, I was a catcher in baseball long b/4 I had dreams of becoming a doctor. And this experience as a catcher dealing with schizophrenic pitchers with all their quirks and insecurities was much like dealing with the many schizophrenic surgeons I deal with everyday. The OR is just like baseball. There is the ancillary staff of nurses and scrubs just like the infielders and outfielders. Next, there is the pitcher who is the center of attention and the most fragile member of the team. And then the catcher. The smartest member of the team. The one that calls the game pitch by pitch. The one that controls the tempo. The one that says when the game starts and when the next play occurs or not. The catcher needs to understand the fragile nature of his pitcher so as to get through the game with the best chance of winning. One little tweak in the game and the pitcher begins to lose it. It is now the catcher's job to get the pitcher back in the game, or go to the bullpen (I so wish we had a bullpen in surgery, that would be the bomb). Once the game is over, it is the pitcher that gets the coudoh's for the win and the catcher goes to the locker room to prepare for the next game while the pitcher takes the next game off. And like in medicine, when the game doesn't go well, the pitcher tries to blame the catcher for calling a bad game but when it comes down to it, it was the pitcher who missed his spots.

Pitcher=surgeon
Catcher=anesthesiologist

The only difference is that in baseball the better pitchers are paid better than their catchers while in medicine the catchers are paid better.

 

[maceo]

Pitcher=surgeon
Catcher=anesthesiologist

is this a gay reference?

 

[Masseter Spasm]

Choosing to be a general surgeon is not a career decision. It is a life decision.

 

[cfdavid]

Great analogy there Joo. But I've always looked at the OR as a sports team, but in a different sport. See, I was a catcher in baseball long b/4 I had dreams of becoming a doctor. And this experience as a catcher dealing with schizophrenic pitchers with all their quirks and insecurities was much like dealing with the many schizophrenic surgeons I deal with everyday. The OR is just like baseball. There is the ancillary staff of nurses and scrubs just like the infielders and outfielders. Next, there is the pitcher who is the center of attention and the most fragile member of the team. And then the catcher. The smartest member of the team. The one that calls the game pitch by pitch. The one that controls the tempo. The one that says when the game starts and when the next play occurs or not. The catcher needs to understand the fragile nature of his pitcher so as to get through the game with the best chance of winning. One little tweak in the game and the pitcher begins to lose it. It is now the catcher's job to get the pitcher back in the game, or go to the bullpen (I so wish we had a bullpen in surgery, that would be the bomb). Once the game is over, it is the pitcher that gets the coudoh's for the win and the catcher goes to the locker room to prepare for the next game while the pitcher takes the next game off. And like in medicine, when the game doesn't go well, the pitcher tries to blame the catcher for calling a bad game but when it comes down to it, it was the pitcher who missed his spots.

Pitcher=surgeon
Catcher=anesthesiologist

The only difference is that in baseball the better pitchers are paid better than their catchers while in medicine the catchers are paid better.

Another good sports analogy. I too never really cared about the lime light. Personally, on all my rotations, I really enjoyed the "medicine" aspects of them. So, I was more between medicine and anesthesiology.

To me, anesthesia is just more fun. It's nice to do procedures and see direct, immediate consequences. I also really always enjoyed the team dynamic of the OR, all the way "down" to the circulating nurses and scrub techs.

If you can get along well with people (among other things) and don't get all bent out of shape, then anes is a great field. And, like others have said, the fellowships are highly variable, which is very nice.

 

[filter07]

Great analogy there Joo. But I've always looked at the OR as a sports team, but in a different sport. See, I was a catcher in baseball long b/4 I had dreams of becoming a doctor. And this experience as a catcher dealing with schizophrenic pitchers with all their quirks and insecurities was much like dealing with the many schizophrenic surgeons I deal with everyday. The OR is just like baseball. There is the ancillary staff of nurses and scrubs just like the infielders and outfielders. Next, there is the pitcher who is the center of attention and the most fragile member of the team. And then the catcher. The smartest member of the team. The one that calls the game pitch by pitch. The one that controls the tempo. The one that says when the game starts and when the next play occurs or not. The catcher needs to understand the fragile nature of his pitcher so as to get through the game with the best chance of winning. One little tweak in the game and the pitcher begins to lose it. It is now the catcher's job to get the pitcher back in the game, or go to the bullpen (I so wish we had a bullpen in surgery, that would be the bomb). Once the game is over, it is the pitcher that gets the coudoh's for the win and the catcher goes to the locker room to prepare for the next game while the pitcher takes the next game off. And like in medicine, when the game doesn't go well, the pitcher tries to blame the catcher for calling a bad game but when it comes down to it, it was the pitcher who missed his spots.

Pitcher=surgeon
Catcher=anesthesiologist

The only difference is that in baseball the better pitchers are paid better than their catchers while in medicine the catchers are paid better.

Juuuuust a bit biased. 🙄
But I guess this is your forum, the world in which anesthesiologists are rock stars, the smartest members of the team, and the hardest working.

 

[Noyac]

Juuuuust a bit biased. 🙄
But I guess this is your forum, the world in which anesthesiologists are rock stars, the smartest members of the team, and the hardest working.

Yep, that's my world.😀

I understand your point though.

 

[urge]

To me, anesthesia is just more fun. It's nice to do procedures and see direct, immediate consequences.

It gets old after a while. It's true for pretty much everything in life though.

 

[dhb]

It gets old after a while. It's true for pretty much everything in life though.

Except maybe for this [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9t5qOSzCU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[yellow]

thanks for the replies everyone.
i appreciate all the advice and thoughts you shared.

 

[Consigliere]

would i be an idiot to go into general surgery and sacrifice my 20's? lol.

Yes, yes you would.

 

[Jeff05]

you will not only sacrifice your 20s.
no one does gen surgery anymore. everyone does fellowships - that's at least 6 or 7 years. so you're already at 32, at best, when you finish.

most med students have the perception that the good life starts after residency. it does not. unless you are taken by the hand and placed into a successful practice - you are going to have to work your ***** off for many years in order to establish a successful practice. and even then, you will be WORKING.

if you have a mental image of holding your breath and "sacrificing" during residency - don't do it. because IT never ends.

would i be an idiot to go into general surgery and sacrifice my 20's? lol.


i liked anesthesia and would probably be close to as happy with ANE+CC.


any advice from people who struggled with Gen Surg vs. Anesthesia?