S
Serve Others
Hey guys,
First I would truly appreciate it if you guys would not to write me off about my question because this is my first post or because I am admittedly telling you I haven't gotten into med school yet. A little background: finished my undergrad in the honors college (microbiology), I worked in a research lab for two years in drug discovery, I am published in the journal of biotechnology, and I share a patent with two other doctors. After college I taught science and coached the soccer team for the school. Last year I quit my job to do full time missionary work for 9 months and in doing so/through this experience with some soul searching I realized that I wanted to not necessarily change the world but do as much as I can to be a change in the world. I noticed in the past what stopped me from going into medical school was fear, fear of missing out and "wasting" my life away.... so eventually I lost purpose. Thankfully I now know what I want from life now.
So here is the deal: I am really interested in becoming a general surgeon or orthopedic surgeon. My only problem (besides all the hurdles I will have to go through to make it there) is that ever since I could remember I've had a bad back. It is very hard for me to stay standing up for long periods of time. I would say anything above 30min is already causing noticeable ache/pain in my lower back, while I can very well run/jog for the same amount of time with barely any pain. Besides treating it: better posture, losing weight, appropriate shoes, strengthening core, working out/staying fit, stretching, pain medication, distributing weight between feet at different time intervals, etc. if all that fails, is it realistic to say that I could foresee operating while sitting down? I am honestly not interested at all in ENT or urulogy or any other surgical realm, but really only general and orthopedic surgery.
I am currently thinking orthopedic surgery could work. I watched an acl repair (from youtube: ) in which the surgeon was sitting down. To me, the angle in which you can operate certain bone extremities seems feasible when sitting down, perhaps at least during some part of the operation. Intuitively to me this wouldn't seem possible for general surgery because surgeries requiere more visual depth in this field, unless you are using some robotics.
I realize this might be a whole different animal during residency if I match, so I guess my thoughts are:
- Initially during residency I'll have to figure out a way to stand up without bodily collapsing and then eventually with time and practice the attending and other residents might be willing to allow me to do certain cases sitting down so long I demonstrate proficiency?
- If I am being naive, then will there be a good chance post residence I could tailor my practice setting wether private, hospital or academics to be able to do this?
- Any other thoughts?
Truth is I am willing to work very hard and sacrifice, but I am not willing to live in perpetual lower back pain that lands me in the OR to be operated ironically by a surgeon sitting on a stool. lol. Moderator please don't move my thread to pre-med as I feel I would not get real experience advice from there. Thank you all in advance for your time and feedback.
First I would truly appreciate it if you guys would not to write me off about my question because this is my first post or because I am admittedly telling you I haven't gotten into med school yet. A little background: finished my undergrad in the honors college (microbiology), I worked in a research lab for two years in drug discovery, I am published in the journal of biotechnology, and I share a patent with two other doctors. After college I taught science and coached the soccer team for the school. Last year I quit my job to do full time missionary work for 9 months and in doing so/through this experience with some soul searching I realized that I wanted to not necessarily change the world but do as much as I can to be a change in the world. I noticed in the past what stopped me from going into medical school was fear, fear of missing out and "wasting" my life away.... so eventually I lost purpose. Thankfully I now know what I want from life now.
So here is the deal: I am really interested in becoming a general surgeon or orthopedic surgeon. My only problem (besides all the hurdles I will have to go through to make it there) is that ever since I could remember I've had a bad back. It is very hard for me to stay standing up for long periods of time. I would say anything above 30min is already causing noticeable ache/pain in my lower back, while I can very well run/jog for the same amount of time with barely any pain. Besides treating it: better posture, losing weight, appropriate shoes, strengthening core, working out/staying fit, stretching, pain medication, distributing weight between feet at different time intervals, etc. if all that fails, is it realistic to say that I could foresee operating while sitting down? I am honestly not interested at all in ENT or urulogy or any other surgical realm, but really only general and orthopedic surgery.
I am currently thinking orthopedic surgery could work. I watched an acl repair (from youtube: ) in which the surgeon was sitting down. To me, the angle in which you can operate certain bone extremities seems feasible when sitting down, perhaps at least during some part of the operation. Intuitively to me this wouldn't seem possible for general surgery because surgeries requiere more visual depth in this field, unless you are using some robotics.
I realize this might be a whole different animal during residency if I match, so I guess my thoughts are:
- Initially during residency I'll have to figure out a way to stand up without bodily collapsing and then eventually with time and practice the attending and other residents might be willing to allow me to do certain cases sitting down so long I demonstrate proficiency?
- If I am being naive, then will there be a good chance post residence I could tailor my practice setting wether private, hospital or academics to be able to do this?
- Any other thoughts?
Truth is I am willing to work very hard and sacrifice, but I am not willing to live in perpetual lower back pain that lands me in the OR to be operated ironically by a surgeon sitting on a stool. lol. Moderator please don't move my thread to pre-med as I feel I would not get real experience advice from there. Thank you all in advance for your time and feedback.