Monday, May 21, 2007

Future Type B Surgeon?

So this is the convo I had with my dad and my little brother last night.

DAD (to little bro): Tell Katie what you decided you want to be.

LITTLE BRO: a cardiothoracic surgeon

ME: Awesome! But you'll need to work on being more of a dick.

DAD: Yeah, way more.

LITTLE BRO: What do you mean? To the patients or to everybody?

ME: Well, to the patients a little, but they won't care quite so much because, well, they need cariothoracic surgery, and they really just want to get it over with. But the staff will probably hate you.

LITTLE BRO: hmmm...

DAD: Think Dr. Cox on Scrubs

LITTLE BRO: So am I required to be a dick?

DAD: No, it's just a stereotype.

ME: Yeah, it really is just a stereotype. But it happens a lot. I think it's because in the OR the surgeon is looked at as the most important member of the medical staff and people just stay out of his way and don't really care as much if he's rude to them. But then when he leaves the OR, he still thinks he's the most important person, and everyone else is rolling their eyes.

LITTLE BRO: So how old will I be before I'm actually a cariothoracic surgeon?

ME: Early to mid 30's is my guess.

LITTLE BRO: But then when do I get married and have kids?

DAD: When you're a cariothoracic surgeon.

ME: Well, here's the thing about marriage in med school-

DAD (interrupts): You at least need to be done with your residency.

ME: (sigh) So here's the thing about marriage in med school, the people in med school who are married can't imagine not having a spouse arond to help out with the things like cooking a taking care of the house. The people who are not married, like me, are like "Ahhhhhhhh marriage! No!". As far as kids go, you get it a little bit easier because you at least don't have to deal with being pregnant, but you will never spend as much time with your kids as you wish you could, no matter what stage of your education or career you have them.

DAD: That's with any career though. I remember when I was in SWAT.

LITTLE BRO: So who wants to watch Scrubs?

3 comments:

Jesse said...

haha I remember a phase I went through premed when I wanted to be a cardiologist. A cardiologist. Once more for emphasis, a CARDIOLOGIST. I hope someone would have just shot me and put me out of my misery.

Gregory House, PA-C said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gregory House, PA-C said...

Hahaha, I'm going through this same revelation myself, just on a bigger scale. (Ref: my blog)