I can relate. I made slightly over 6 figs when I was 25 yrs old. (I must say, I've made slightly less than that ever since, but not by much) I'm 30 now, with a nice home, and pretty much do what I want.
I just listed my house for sale, and am going to be making some of the most "irrational" financial decisions in my life. But f... it. You have to love what you do. If I'm not making above average income, I'm seriously pissed off. It's kind of like that's all I get out of my career. But when I reflect back, I was just as happy (if not more) when I was living in a REALLY small dorm room in college.
Last night I was volunteering in a local hospital, in the ED. I stayed 4 hours over my schedule. I didn't want to leave. The environment is so stimulating.
In fact, I saw the EM docs (and nurses) save a guys life last night. This guy, with no previous heart problems, came in after having just fallen to the ground, and chest pains etc...
They ended up inserting a temporary pace maker into a vein in his chest (I'm pretty sure a vein, not artery). But is was a very precarious situation. Several times, this guy almost lost his life. He went into these spasms, while the doc was trying to get the pace maker electrodes positioned correctly (very crude procedure in which they are totally blind, with nothing other than an EKG monitor for feedback on correct/sufficient positioning).
So, I'm sitting there watching this stuff and a nurse says "you can go in there". There were 2-3 nurses (off and on), an EM doc, and he also called in a cardiologist just in case.
I'm in the room, when the first "spasm" took place, so I had to jump in there and help hold the guy down cause the Cardio was placing the electrodes (kind of feeding them in and out, to get the best positioning), and the guy started flailing his arms and legs.
Everyone had each hand tied up. The nurses, holding the legs, holding wrists for pulse reads, and everything. I had the guys hand which was closest to the Cardio, and REALLY close to the electrode insertion point on his chest, and was also holding his left leg down with the nurse.
The doc calls for some gauze, and this sticky thing to hold down the tube that was inserted into his chest. But nobody had a free hand. Since I was just helping the nurse with the leg deal, I freed up my left hand to grab the gauze package. But I couldn't open it with just one hand, and nobody was helping me (it was pretty intense at that moment).
So, I held it with my left hand and started to tear the package open with my teeth! I didn't see any other option! Well, the nurse next to me says "no, no", and I'm like "sh..t, yeah, sorry". So another nurse ended up grabbing it and tearing it open.
Anyway, I just couldn't believe I was there, actually playing a role.
The best part was that this guy was really close to dying and the docs and nurses totally saved his life. JUST prior to him taking an initial turn for the worse, his wife was actually standing right outside the room (with open double doors). Good thing she went to the lobby, so she didn't see anything.
Later, his daughter and wife came back to talk to the cardio doc. They had NO idea how close this guy was to dying just 15 minutes prior. (I asked the nurse how close, and she said "very").
It was an unbelievably cool feeling. The docs and nurses were so nice.
Since this is a pre-DO thread, I'll add that this was not an Osteopathic hospital. But, the attending was a DO. He also had 2 DO EM residents under him. This guy was really good at what he did (I was observing quite a bit, and was even in the small room where he was going over cases with the residents).
Also, earlier in the evening it was kind of slow in the ED. So, I strolled over to the CT scanning rooms, knocked on the door and introduced myself. The CT techs were like "sure come on in". So, I'm shooting the sh..t with these people, and they're telling me all this stuff about CT's, and what I was seeing on the computer monitor (again, so damn neat).
So, they ask me why I'm volunteering, and I tell them that I'll be applying to med school soon etc.. No joke, one women asked "would you consider being a DO"? I said, "in a minute", but told them I'll apply to all of my state schools, of which only 1 is DO. (Michigan)
Both women went on to talk VERY highly of DO's they knew. One had a DO doc, and the other I didn't really get to ask about.
Prior to last night, I had no idea whether the EM docs were MD or DO, or what. There's no color coded dress and it's tough to see their badges etc.
No one really seemed to know. I asked them if there were a lot of DO's at the hospital (again, it wasn't an Osteopathic hospital, so I assumed they'd of course be a minority). They didn't really know.
It was only later that I discovered that at least one of the 2 attendings in the ED was a DO, and 2 of the residents were (there were only 2 residents total).
Just thought I'd pass on some of the info. It was a great experience!
According to all of the docs I've talked to FM pays 130-170k here in austin (TX) and we have a glut of docs and pay is 10-20%less than in dallas or houston. I know nurses that make more than 70k. 😛
