Specialization cut short by drinks.

So, a lot has happened since I last wrote to you. I've finished with Vascular surgery and I'm one week into lower GI surgery. I think I've written to you enough about all things vascular. It was not an easy month for me. Not because the hours were hard, and I even saw the humor in most of the patients. But, the medicine just wasn't for me. Right now, though, in the abdomen, I feel like I've returned to my happy place.

This has got me pondering on how young doctors pick their specialties. It's often said in med school that the professors can tell what specialty you are destined before just by meeting you. The nerdy ones with poor people skills often end up in specialties like radiology or pathology. It's always the geeky guys that are forever quoting journal articles that lean towards medicine. The kids that just quite pick what they are interested in lean toward family medicine. And the rough and ready guys that are always looking for their next adrenaline rush end up in the ED. The surgeons are the ones that are too cool for school. I could keep going on with the stereotypes. Tell you about the ladies the pick OB/GYN and the sometimes super creepy, too nice guys that go for it as well. But, you know all these things. Most of these stereotypes are quite intuitive. My question is about how one picks their subspecialty.

In this day and age being a generalized doctor is a death sentence to your practice. Everyone wants a specialist. We used to joke in med school that we would specialize in something obscure like the pinky and make a mint because people the world over would come to use for their pinky troubles. And we could charge double, even triple because we were the only one in the world. While that is a bit extreme it does have a nugget of truth. Specialization is the only way to survive.

So, now that I've picked surgery how do I pick a specialty?? We spend our first year rotating through a different specialty each month. We meet with an assigned mentor and we really should know what we want to do by our second year. But, it's a hard decision.

Ummmm, I'll finish later. I only just got home at 6 and I have tomorrow so I'd decided to just sit in and veg, write to you guys. But then a couple of my co-interns called and we've decided to grab some drinks since none of us have to work tomorrow. I'm going to wear make up. And fancy jewelry that dangles. Oh My God. It's been so long.