Surgical Specialty career options for student with JRA

[mcworbust]

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I'm an M1 with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and am currently in the process of investigating surgical subspecialties. My condition is well managed medically, but I am hesitant to get too attached to any of the surgical subspecialties as standing statically for extended periods of time is torture for me and my joints. I do know of surgeons with arthritis who still are able to practice, but I believe their problems are mostly in their hands (which is probably exacerbated by the increase in laproscopic procedures)whereas I experience mostly neck and back pain.

As residents/physicians, could you please comment on what surgical subspecialties I should investigate further given my condition, and/or which subspecialties I should avoid due to my JRA. I am concerned about limitations during and after residency training.

I have spent time shadowing in neurosurg, ophtho, and bariatric surgery. After working in Ophtho (clinical research) I have decided it is an awesome field but unfortunately not for me...

I want to make sure to investigate any/all possibilities, and am asking to help further focus my search (and to avoid falling in love with something that my JRA would ultimately preclude me from doing well). Thanks, I really appreciate your input!

EDIT: TLDR/UPDATE 2/2017- (see post #7) I went thru med school, loved surgery but too much pain, now pursuing non-surgical specialty that I also loved. thanks

 

[Winged Scapula]

I do know of surgeons with arthritis who still are able to practice, but I believe their problems are mostly in their hands (which is probably exacerbated by the increase in laproscopic procedures)whereas I experience mostly neck and back pain.

I dunno...when we sit around the OR lounge we're complaining about neck and back pain, not hand pain.

Just like all the other other threads here with questions about <insert malady>, only you can specify what the limitations are. I highly doubt that there are any surgical specialties which are wholesale off limits for you with JRA. However, if standing for long periods of time is "torture", that could be a problem, as med school and residency will require that at some point in time.

 

[mcworbust]

Thanks for the response, good to know!

 

[bedrock]

I'm an M1 with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and am currently in the process of investigating surgical subspecialties. My condition is well managed medically, but I am hesitant to get too attached to any of the surgical subspecialties as standing statically for extended periods of time is torture for me and my joints. I do know of surgeons with arthritis who still are able to practice, but I believe their problems are mostly in their hands (which is probably exacerbated by the increase in laproscopic procedures)whereas I experience mostly neck and back pain.

As residents/physicians, could you please comment on what surgical subspecialties I should investigate further given my condition, and/or which subspecialties I should avoid due to my JRA. I am concerned about limitations during and after residency training.

I have spent time shadowing in neurosurg, ophtho, and bariatric surgery. After working in Ophtho (clinical research) I have decided it is an awesome field but unfortunately not for me...

I want to make sure to investigate any/all possibilities, and am asking to help further focus my search (and to avoid falling in love with something that my JRA would ultimately preclude me from doing well). Thanks, I really appreciate your input!

I would say nothing is off limits, but all almost surgery involves standing statically for long periods, which you said is "torture" And that's without even doing a surgery rotation as an M3. I'm glad your condition is well managed, but unfortunately that easily could worsen 10 years from now, let alone the torture of surviving a surgical residency when "standing statically for extended periods of time is torture for me and my joints"
Most surgeons with arthritis got it in their 50 and 60s, not in their 20s during surgery residency and not during the first two decades of their practice.

Lots of things you can do in medicine and you have to consider if you can practice a specialty for 30 years. I'd investigate less physically demanding specialties.

 

[mcworbust]

Thanks for your candid response, was what I needed to hear! I do know others who are now adults with similar diagnoses who are in pretty rough shape now as middle age men (although they didnt receive any intervention as kids), and I didn't really think about 30 years down the road but now I realize it would really be improbable that Id still be able to practice in such a physically demanding specialty years down the road. Thanks again for taking the time to address my post!

 

[Wustenfuchs]

I'm an M1 with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and am currently in the process of investigating surgical subspecialties. My condition is well managed medically, but I am hesitant to get too attached to any of the surgical subspecialties as standing statically for extended periods of time is torture for me and my joints. I do know of surgeons with arthritis who still are able to practice, but I believe their problems are mostly in their hands (which is probably exacerbated by the increase in laproscopic procedures)whereas I experience mostly neck and back pain.

As residents/physicians, could you please comment on what surgical subspecialties I should investigate further given my condition, and/or which subspecialties I should avoid due to my JRA. I am concerned about limitations during and after residency training.

I have spent time shadowing in neurosurg, ophtho, and bariatric surgery. After working in Ophtho (clinical research) I have decided it is an awesome field but unfortunately not for me...

I want to make sure to investigate any/all possibilities, and am asking to help further focus my search (and to avoid falling in love with something that my JRA would ultimately preclude me from doing well). Thanks, I really appreciate your input!

How about we're having the very same conversation when you're a m4?

 

[mcworbust]

How about we're having the very same conversation when you're a m4?

Ok now I'm an M4 (had a research year) - I absolutely loved my 2 months of surgery as an M3 and it went extremely well, BUT after I got out of the OR I was miserable It was the most painful 2 months of my life despite my attempts to pre-empt pain/inflamm. Thanks for all the responses, I'm pursuing a non-surgical specialty which I also enjoyed.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Ok now I'm an M4 (had a research year) - I absolutely loved my 2 months of surgery as an M3 and it went extremely well, BUT after I got out of the OR I was miserable It was the most painful 2 months of my life despite my attempts to pre-empt pain/inflamm. Thanks for all the responses, I'm pursuing a non-surgical specialty which I also enjoyed.

Thanks for the update, almost no one ever does that! I'm glad to hear you found something else that you enjoy.


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[mcworbust]

Thanks for the update, almost no one ever does that! I'm glad to hear you found something else that you enjoy.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Haha, thanks! I figured I better comment on what came of my situation in case others with similar issues search and find this thread (especially cuz this is the only thread I've ever started, and the search function has taken care of all my other questions over the years 🙂). Thank you all for your input and help!

 

[Winged Scapula]

For those of us long term members, we often recall prior threads and spend time wondering, "whatever became of..." and I'm sure you've seen threads started by others, abandoned and then 5 years later someone comes along with the same issue and posts, inquiring of the OP, "whatever became of..." most often with no response.

Your contribution is really appreciated.

Best of luck to you.

 

[mcworbust]

For those of us long term members, we often recall prior threads and spend time wondering, "whatever became of..." and I'm sure you've seen threads started by others, abandoned and then 5 years later someone comes along with the same issue and posts, inquiring of the OP, "whatever became of..." most often with no response.

Your contribution is really appreciated.

Best of luck to you.

I've certainly seen those threads, and feel the same way! Thanks so much for your kind words, and for all your work making SDN such a useful resource for all of us!

 

[vhawk]

For those of us long term members, we often recall prior threads and spend time wondering, "whatever became of..." and I'm sure you've seen threads started by others, abandoned and then 5 years later someone comes along with the same issue and posts, inquiring of the OP, "whatever became of..." most often with no response.

Your contribution is really appreciated.

Best of luck to you.

Or even better, I never read yhis thread when it was initially posted and opened it this time not realizing how old it was. Man was it satisfying to get to the part where the response was "why don't you come back and discuss this when you aee a ms4" and then BOOM next post is "ok I'm an ms4." All threads should be like that.

Can we work on implementing that as a new SDN feature? You hit a button and you get to fast forward into the future to see how the situation resolves? Maybe have a little 80s Montage music play while the process is running? Get to work on that for us.

 

[armybound]

I wonder how it would go in a robotic-heavy specialty like urology.

 

[mcworbust]

I wonder how it would go in a robotic-heavy specialty like urology.

I thought of this as well, and although I didn't do a rotation in urology I sought out urology experience and got to see probably 15 cases during my surgery rotation when all gen surg cases were taken. I didn't do well wearing lead, and lots of urology cases (ECSW lithotripsy, ureteral stenting, perc nephrolithotomy, uretero-renoscopy, and maybe others I'm forgetting now) use fluoroscopy, so unfortunately it didn't work for me. Good idea, and maybe it would work for others but just not for me. Thanks for your input!