The end of Rads

Today was the last day of my radiology rotation - it also signifies my completing 1/4 of my 3rd year. It's kind of crazy that I'm already a quarter of the way finished. What is even more unfathomable to me is the fact that at this time next year I will have chosen a specialty, applied to residency programs, and be anxiously awaiting to hear if and where I will be interviewing.
I feel like a small child being asked - "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Before, I would have said I want to be a doctor. This is obviously still true, but now I feel as if I am being asked almost the exact same question, "What type of medicine do you want to go into?" Deciding to become a physician was only the tip of the iceberg in this decision of a lifelong career. After my acceptance to medical school a whole new world opened up to me. I was no longer a college pre-med sitting there with my fingers crossed - "just let me in, just let me in" I had made it - I was accepted. I was going to be a doctor.

Now as a 3rd year medical student I travel through many different areas of medicine on various rotations. (family med, internal med, pediatrics, Ob/Gyn, psych, surgery etc) These brief 1-2 month exposures to the various specialties are supposed to guide me in my decision of how I want to spend my career in medicine. As I proceed through each rotation I am doing my best to reflect and analyze what is I like/dislike about it. This blog is supposed to help me do that. I do not remember if I posted about family medicine or not. If not I will relatively soon. I wrote about it in my journal.

As for radiology...

I decided to do rads for my elective, because I figured whatever field of medicine I decided to go into radiology would have a role. This past month was to serve me an opportunity to see what radiology had to offer diagnostically and therapeutically to patients and just to see the behind the scenes action. In many ways radiology is exactly what you think of - people sitting in dark rooms in front of a computer screen all day reading out "films" (which are now all digital). This is a big part of radiology. There can be patient interaction through Interventional radiology or though ultrasound or CT guided biopsies. There are opportunities to work with patients. But for the most part it is a lot of independent work spent in front of a computer screen.
This may sound very boring to some and at times it was - my head bobbed a few times, finding myself near sleep. And I did miss the sun - thankfully they let me out of work at 4 so there was still plenty of daylight to be enjoyed.

What I did enjoy about radiology was the variety. Even though they look at many x-rays, CTs, or MRIs over and over again - they see many different diaganoses. One patient is there to look for metastasis, another kidney stones, another internal bleeding, etc. I also enjoyed the anatomy aspect of radiology. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed anatomy. CT scans help visualize different organs in relation to one another throughout the body. X-rays help with recalling which bones are where and normal physiology as they heal and how that changes their look radiographically.

The big question though is - could I be a radiologist?
For me - probably not. I like the variety they see, the hours they work, and the salary they are paid...But it lacks a patient interaction that I need. It lacks knowing more about the entire patient and their story. I saw some interesting cases in radiology, but most of the time I was more interested in how do you manage or treat this condition or what does that feel like - more than concern with how it radiographically is expressed.
Also, sitting in a dark room all day cannot be good for you.

Next up - 6 weeks of Pediatrics. Bring on the babies. Any bets on if and when I will get peed or pooed on?