What is your SO's Specialization??

[Vanquisher]

Orthopaedic surgery.

Can we hear a aww, poor you, empathetic groan?

Seriously, though, dh loves his specialty. He loves that he gets to play with power tools. He loves the sound of crunching bone and feeling a thud when he pops a hip back into place. It's weird. He loves having a very specific problem that he can fix with patients who get better. He loves that his patients are all ages and a lot are young.

Emergency Medicine. DH considered everything, everything, before he chose. Ultimately, he loves the variety of people that come in to the ED and the variety of what they present with. He also really likes the fast paced work environment. Shift work, no call and the ability to be home a good amount also weighed heavily. We both really liked that we can go anywhere with it, the biggest and smallest cities alike, as alison said.

[houseelf]

DH entered med school intending to be an ObGyn. (His mom was a obstetrics nurse). He loooooved delivering babies but didn't care for gyn part. (He cried at all of his med school deliveries!)

Once he found surgery, however, it was his siren call. He loves it, lives it, eats it, breathes it. He is a surgeon to his core. In early residency, he considered most surgical subspecialities. Transplant has a suck-ass life style and involves too much internal medicine and waiting. (Did I say that he was a surgeon to his core?) Vascular patients typically are train wrecks. He loved, loved, loved burn surgery but didn't want to become a Trauma surgeon too (generally the two subspecialties go hand and hand). He has said that he has seen too enough meth-head, gang bangers to last a life time. CT is fascinating but the market sucks. He didn't want to do 9 to 10 years of training and then not be able to call the shots when finding a job. (Sorry Flynn---not directed to you!)

When he performed his first pediatric surgery, he knew immediately that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He adores kids, the outcomes are generally positive, and there is an unbelievable market for peds surgeons. The downside is that this training path will suck the marrow out of all of our lives getting there. I'm proud of him and happy for him, but egads, the price is high for this field.

Kelly

[Auspicious]

Pathology here, too.

He wanted a speciality that was compatable with a certain kind of family life, and he loves all things microscopic--unlocking all those little mysteries that occur at the cellular and molecular level.

He's in his 3rd year of an Internal Medicine residency with this year and one chief year to go. After that, we have our fingers crossed for a pulmonary critical care fellowship (3 more years ). He likes the university hospital setting because he enjoys teaching and really likes caring for very sick people.

I remember him saying "I really think I want to be a _______" - fill in the blank according to whatever rotation he was doing 3rd or 4th year.

[Stella]

Thanks! I know we have plenty of time to brainstorm and he won't even have his rounds for another couple years but sharing these insights with him has been more than helpful.

[Vishenka69]

DH also considered a bunch of different options but ultimately we both decided on anesthesia. While in med school, he did research with an Orthopaedic surgeon but once he started his 3rd year surgical rotations, I put an end to those dreams (I'm not as nice or patient as Heidi). Then we got engaged and I insisted on something family-friendly. That's when DH remembered that almost all anesthesiologists he met were constantly checking their stock portfolios online and discussing their vacation plans. Plus they got to sit a lot during surgeries. He also did a lot of calculations as to which specialty works how much for what compensation and decided anesthesia has a good balance.

I think doing rotations during 3rd year really helps make a decision. Some specialties will become a def "no" while others will remain a "maybe."

[MrsC]

DH originally considered several options but settled for General Surgery. Why? Well, he loves surgery, pushing himself to the limit, it's a challenge. I often ask why he picked one of the most difficult specialities and that's his answer. Having said that, every once in a while he'll wonder why he's putting himself through it. It really is an area that requires you to make A LOT of personal sacrafices i.e you have to be okay with standing for 18 hours straight, not having time to eat, not to mention the strain it puts on your family life. Surgery is a vocation, not a job. Unfortunately, he had his mind made up when we met so I just had to go with the flow.

As for sub-specialities, some are brutal, some are great. At the moment he wants to stick with GS since numbers entering surgery residancies are decreasing and he will have some excellent choices once he graduates.

[SuzySunshine]

At the moment he wants to stick with GS since numbers
entering surgery residancies are decreasing and he will have some excellent choices once he graduates.

I actually saw a story on this today, there is a major fear of a lack of GS in the coming years - I was surprised, but I can understand why when you see what an insane amount of training they do that they'll probably never see again. Odd.

A lot of surgery spouses here! DH is med-peds. Our lifestyle is so dramatically different since when he was in training. He's home before dinner; he starts late enough that he can take our oldest DD to school every morning; he only works 4 days/wk. His call is supposed to be every 7th day, but it varies. (Sometimes he'll go a couple of weeks without call. I'm not sure how they work the call schedule out.) Bottom line, he has a life! With a 5th child pending, I'm glad that he can have a nice home life without feeling stressed out and tired all of the time.

[Vanquisher]

A lot of surgery spouses here!

That's because our husbands are always at the hospital, so we are all lonely, and needed this site for cheap feels and love. :>

I'm beginning to think that family practitioners and psychiatrists (don't care what the divorce numbers say) must have the sweet life. There are none of their spouses here!

[Laker]

DW chose radiation oncology. She likes basic science, technology, and especially working with cancer patients. We wanted a specialty that will allow us to have a family because I plan on working when we have kids.

I am just happy for her that she found an area of medicine that she enjoys

[migirl]

I'm beginning to the family practitioners and psychiatry (don't care what the divorce numbers say) must have the sweet life. There are none of their spouses here!

That's true!! I've never thought about that before!

[Vanquisher]

I'm beginning to the family practitioners and psychiatry (don't care what the divorce numbers say) must have the sweet life. There are none of their spouses here!

That's true!! I've never thought about that before!

Eek. For the love of Maude....the grammar in some of the things I let myself type and submit is atrocious! Sorry. I just type and hit the button before I read. You are all the victims of it. It's a sickness.

What I meant was, and I edited the quoted post, "I'm beginning to think that family practitioners and psychiatrists..."

[MrsC]

Right now, the only upside to GS is that we can afford to be picky once he graduates. We may not have to move very far because there will be a high demand everywhere. There won't be any more 90 hour weeks, that's for sure! Right now I'm lucky if I see him for an hour during the day, it's night float this month.

I can't wait for these four years to be finished with.
Ahh...how lovely it will be to finally get to know my husband!!

:candle