Why ophtho?

[sunflower79]

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Hi all,
I will soon start my one-week rotation of ophtho which comprises the entirety of my required experience in this field in med school. This past year I had begun to lean towardsd surgery in general. I still haven't ruled out ophtho but am thinking about it more now.

The way I see it, pros are:
- micro-surgeries suit my perfectionistic tendencies, manual dexterity and patience (i.e. I don't enjoy big whacks)
- hours are great
- I like surgery in general b/c of its hands on nature

The cons, though, mainly consist of the fact that eye diseases just don't excite me. There are lots of other fields that could fit the list above. So I'm wondering, what has drawn you all into this little realm called the eye?

thanks 🙂
sunflower

 

[I Surgeon]

Hi all,
I will soon start my one-week rotation of ophtho which comprises the entirety of my required experience in this field in med school. This past year I had begun to lean towardsd surgery in general. I still haven't ruled out ophtho but am thinking about it more now.

The way I see it, pros are:
- micro-surgeries suit my perfectionistic tendencies, manual dexterity and patience (i.e. I don't enjoy big whacks)
- hours are great
- I like surgery in general b/c of its hands on nature

The cons, though, mainly consist of the fact that eye diseases just don't excite me. There are lots of other fields that could fit the list above. So I'm wondering, what has drawn you all into this little realm called the eye?

thanks 🙂
sunflower

If eye diseases do not excite you, then do yourself a favor and don't apply. You may need to explore other fields to find a specialty that suits your interests besides good hours and lifestyle. I was drawn to this specialty because of the eye, its many functions, and particular the pathology.

 

[sunflower79]

I should rephrase and say what little I know about eye diseases do not excite me. I want to emphasize my lack of exposure to date to the field, with the exception of a day with an eye resident in the ER. That's why I'm asking the question, what excites you all about the eye?

 

[rubensan]

Because all other specialties are afraid to touch the eye! It is the ultimate surgical subspecialty that is also very closely related to IM, especially retina. Yeah, ENT was great until I sat in on a neck lymph node dissection for 6 hours meanwhile the ophtholamologist next door were already on their 5th CE/IOL (cataract extraction/intraocular lens exchange). I also hate looking at people cough up loogies all day or looking at their loogies through the flex laryngoscope. Urology was also cool but you are "down there" all day doing DREs and sticking cystoscopes up guy's penises for a good portion of your day during cysto clinic. At USC, the urology on-call and ophtho on-call share the same walk-in clinica publica and I was always more interested in what was going on behind the slit-lamp than what was on the other side of the cystoscope. But that's just me! Go see a cataract surgery (phaco) and see if it does anything for you. Spend an hour in a retinal flourescien (sp?) conference and see if you think it is cool. Spend a morning in a cornea clinic and appreciate those nasty corneal ulcers and then see a patient who had one of those nasty corneal ulcers a year ago and is now 11 months out of PK (penetrating keratoplasy aka cornea transplant) and is seeing 20/40 in that eye. DO an ophtho rotation and see if you enjoy getting up every morning and going to the hospital or were you like I was during psych and dreading every morning and coming in late? Do you like saying "which is better one of two" on a regular basis? Take call with an ophtho resident and then take call with a GSurg resident and see how you would rather spend your time at the hospital. And don't buy that crap that general surgeons or internists will feed you about how ophthalmologist are "eye dentists" (uh-oh will I wake up aphistis?). As soon as an eye looks red they call for a STAT ophtho consult r/o narrow angle glaucoma or corneal ulcer without ever checking accuities or actually looking at the eye. You got to see what interests you sunflower! Only you know what you like to do. We can tell you how cool ophtho is, but if you don't experience it for yourself, what we say means very little. Good luck!

 

[lilybriscoe]

The eyes are beautiful, compex organs through which you can study, treat and specialize in an incredible array of disease and disfunction. If you think you might be interested, try to get as much experience as you can.

Lily

I should rephrase and say what little I know about eye diseases do not excite me. I want to emphasize my lack of exposure to date to the field, with the exception of a day with an eye resident in the ER. That's why I'm asking the question, what excites you all about the eye?