Of Pretense and Persuasions

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Bwa ha ha ha ha.

I'm going to have to stop starting my posts with a maniacal laugh. I can't help it.

I've learned that life can still exist without going through residency!

http://www.02138mag.com/lists/PC/1112.html

Consider Dr. Anita Goel or Dr. Anula Jayasurlya ... two MD/PhDs who have taken the path of biotechnology and venture capitalism to make life exiciting .... without going through the process of residency. In some respects, med school seems like such a waste if you don't do a residency to become a competant physician in something. On the otherhand, residency also means at least 5 years of misery and sleep deprivation so one might as well find something exiting and fun to do with one's time otherwise ... especially if it means making loads of money.

Given that my first entrepreneurial venture [Advantej Web Designs ... my sole-proprietorship that I set up in high school] was a royal failure due to my inability to charge people for what I liked to do for fun .... I'm not so sure the whole venture capitalism thing is for me.

Labels:

Friday, November 09, 2007

I'm in Colorado right now, studying for the second part of the National Board Exam.

I finished my subinternship in General Surgery have decided that it is most definately not for me. I was pretty depressed about the whole thing too because, well, if my end goal [now in question] is to go off into the jungle to operate ... then being a general surgeon is pretty much the best thing to be. Unfortunately, I have realized, I could never survive a General Surgery residency. I mean, physically, I probably could survive. Emotionally, I could probably pull through. Spiritually, I would die. I know, without a doubt, that 7 - 9 years of self-flogging would kill my idealism and my will to serve. My sense, from seeing residents here, is that a residency in General Surgery teaches you to value self-preservation above all else -- its a game of every man for himself.

I've realized that I function better in an environment where team-work is key. Its a lot more fun to work with people than to work against them. That's why I loved Ortho ... there were no hierachies of power to climb over to get shit done. People communicated clearly with each other without fear of being roasted or bullied by their seniors. People worked together, got stuff done, and had fun while they were at it. So ortho is looking like a pretty viable candidate for residency.

I looked into the possibility of my doing Ortho in the jungle ... entirely possible. In fact, I'm going to Haiti in February to do just that. Pro bono ortho work there. And then later on I'll be in India doing reconstructive hand surgery for leprosy patients.

So that's where things stand right now. There is a small part of me that thinks that in my heart of hearts, I really should be a family doc ... because I'm nice.