Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Scratch That

After today's lecture on acute and chronic leukemia I can safely do this to my list of future career possibilities:

-emergency room physician
-orthopedic surgeon
-anesthetist
-OB/GYN
-palliative care specialist
-pediatrician
-hematologist

I actually retract my previous assertion that nerds go into internal medicine, and internal medicine nerds go into nephrology. I now think they go into hematology. I tip my pocket protector to that gang.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is true... it seems like hematologists are bit on the... nerdy side.

After my fiancee was diagnosed with CML at 23 we met with a couple different hematologists and they share a common trait of geekiness. Super smart, but geeky. Lifesavers... but geeeky. Still, I'm incredibly grateful for them!

Albinoblackbear said...

Yes, I was most impressed with her extreme geekiness as she discussed gene therapies, chromosomes, pharmacokinetics etc...but discussed with very humane ease the impact on patients lives, how difficult and sad it can be in her line of work etc.

I mentally bowed to her giant brain and heart.

Headstrong said...

I did hem-onc research before I decided on med school. It was actually one of the physicians I worked with - brilliant in mind and spirit - that finally moved me to apply. Many of those folks - and their patients - are amazing in all senses of the word.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Wow. I didn't even make the cut.

Albinoblackbear said...

HS--Great that you were inspired like that during your research! I have had many nursing mentors but only a very small number of physicians I'd say moved me to consider medicine.

Sadly, it was more the bad MD's that made me want to go to medical school!

Grump--Sorry! Not enough bodily fluids in your line of work. Heheh.

Lucky Jack said...

Cool list - how did you come up with it? Have you rotated through these, or is it just based on what you think you might like?

Albinoblackbear said...

AR--ER because I was an emerg nurse and I have a *very* clear idea of what I would be signing up for, both good and bad.

Ortho--because I had the time of my life last summer assisting this hilariously awesome bellowing South African ortho surgeon. And I like bones, and drills...turns out.

Anest--because I witnessed many times the mad skillz of anesthetists in the emergency dept (and love procedures, drugs, and pain relief--for patients).

OB/GYN--well, the post is fairly recent on that one.

Palliative care--I like the shift to quality not quantity in palliative med, plus my friend Jody had a couple phenomenal MD's when she was dying who really DID make her life better.

Peds--more so as a peds ER doc. For above ER reasons. I actually really enjoy peds, just wrestle with the thought of dealing with crazy parents all the time.

Anonymous said...

Haha, it's funny you mention that, but I'm actually in a heme rotation right now, and it's so true. They're all such nerds. It's very hard to focus when you're running on little sleep, and the guy is rambling on about JAK2 and how downregulation of this gene via a monoclonal antibody has shown 56% improvement in their SSDFLKJ-2 Index of CMML progression.....zzz.....

Dragonfly said...

Man, our lists are so similar. Fist bump.