What's going on guys?
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com
In this video, let's go over how I chose medicine and specifically plastic surgery
and what you can learn from it.
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All right guys! So this video is going to be split up into three parts.
Number one, how and why I chose medicine?
Number two, how and why I chose plastic surgery?
And number three, what you can learn from my mistakes and what I recommend?
So part one, how I chose medicine?
Now when I was a middle school, high school student,
I was always fascinated by the human body.
I loved reading these, you know, large colorful books on the brain,
and on muscles and just general anatomy and I loved it.
I wasn't exactly sure I wanted to be a doctor until college.
Now, a little bit of back story.
In high school I loved computer science.
I was doing a lot of programming.
My brother who is a few years older than me
was already a computer science major in college.
And not to toot my own horn but I had a knack for programming.
There's a certain way of like logical thinking
that you need and I loved it.
And I had a lot of fun and I was torn with the idea
between doing computer science, becoming a programmer
and doing medicine, becoming a doctor.
Now, first year of college was essentially the time
where I was really juggling the two
because I had to choose a major.
I was undecided at that point.
And that's when I got sick.
February of 2009, which was my second quarter of college,
and there were a lot of other things going on at the time.
I got a hell of a lot of family issues and family financial issues,
which combined with the Crohn's disease flare,
again, hardest time in my life.
Now, one of the most important factors in being able to endure a challenging time
is having a purpose.
Now for me, in my situation,
I believed that me getting sick during this critical time
where I was trying to figure out what to do,
was the universe or whatever you want to call it
guiding me to say, "Hey, you need to be a doctor.
You should go into medicine."
Now a lot of you are gonna say, like, "That's a total BS!
The reason you got sick has nothing to do with that."
And yeah, it probably doesn't.
But as humans we create-- At least this is my belief
that we create meaning and purpose out of challenging times to help us endure
and to help us be resilient.
And that's a tool that I used for myself.
So I had gone through a couple--
I had gone through three gastroenterologists that I did not--
I was not happy with the care I received.
And it made me even more passionate.
I'd be like, "Okay, I need to be a gastroenterologist.
I need to help people with similar diseases."
I was actually really interested in Pediatric Gastroenterology
because, here's the other thing,
we don't realize what we've got until we lose it.
Now that's with health, that's with relationships,
that's with family, that's with a lot of things.
This was no different.
So one thing that we all probably take for granted is eating.
Now eating is a very social thing,
at least in the United States and in my culture,
which is, like in college, you will go and socialize over dinner
or over lunch with your friends
and then you're at class and then you're working and studying in between.
But a lot of socializing is done over food.
Now when I was sick, I had to go on a very strict diet.
I was eating like plain...
It was like a very elemental diet. Right.
So plain rice, no fiber.
It was, it was tough.
But in that moment, I despised going to the cafeteria
and smelling this delicious pizza and these hamburgers
and, you know, whatever else they had,
and watching my friends across the table eat it
and knowing that I could not have it.
And that was very challenging for me.
I worked through that and I'm totally fine now.
But one of the things that I really struggled with
was socializing through food.
And some of my friendships, you know,
felt that strain.
And I have learned first hand that, "Wow! Eating is really important."
Not just for your own health and nutrition and staying active
and you know, recovering from exercise and things like that.
But even your mental well-being, being able to eat the foods
that maybe you want to eat or that are healthy for you
and socializing over food.
As an 18 year old male, I understood how difficult that was for me.
And I figured, "Well, that must be even more challenging for kids
'cause I am already developed in a lot of ways."
I have developed a lot more since I was 18.
Don't worry.
But, you know for kids, who are 6, 10,13
that must be so much challenging for them.
And for that reason, I wanted to become a pediatric gastroenterologist.
So that's a doctor, who helps with GI issues for children.
I did some research with IBD and cancer,
and I also did some research with informed consent in pediatric patients.
So, making sure that they or their parents understand the procedure that they're getting,
it's a very important part of any medical procedure.
So now fast-forward to 2nd and 3rd year of medical school.
This was the time where I was actually, able to get more involved
with Pediatric Gastroenterology.
And what I learned after shadowing and rotating on that service
and watching a lot of endoscopies
is that this is not what I wanted to do.
I was, like, "Wait wait. Hold on!"
I got to this point, I wanted to become a doctor--
I got to this point.
"I'm here at medical school because I want to be a Pediatric Gastroenterologist.
What is wrong?"
And I learned-- and if I had some deep introspection,
beforehand, I've already known this,
I very much need a technical challenge.
And I'm not saying that Pediatric Gastroenterology
and the endoscopies that they do
or the other procedures are not technically challenging,
but it's in a completely different league
compared to like reconstructive plastic surgery,
where you're taking, using flabs, using--
You're taking one part of the body,
moving it to the other part using microscopes to reconnect the vessels.
Completely different, no comparison. Right?
Now at that time I didn't know what plastic surgery was.
In fact, I thought plastic surgery was just, you know, titties and nose jobs
and there's nothing wrong with that.
Don't get me wrong.
But I did not think that, that would give me fulfillment.
So it wasn't until one of my friends,
she actually rotated with plastic-surgery and I was, like, "Wow!
They do some crazy cool reconstructive stuff.
Kevin you would love this."
Took her advice and during my surgery rotation 3rd year,
I did plastic surgery, neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery,
thinking that hopefully one of those three would be a good fit for me.
Day one, plastic surgery rotation, I fell in love.
I can't go into the details but essentially, we had a patient...
We took the patient's latissimus dorsi muscle,
which is the, you know, like your pull up muscle.
The one that gives the guys the V.
We essentially took that, rotated it over,
and created a bicep, a makeshift bicep, out of the latissimus dorsi.
That was like Sci-Fi.
I was just in awe.
I was so excited.
It was a seven-hour case.
I was wearing dress shoes
'cause this was the first day of my surgery rotation.
I didn't have time to get the proper, you know, the proper OR shoes.
I didn't leave the room to use the bathroom.
I didn't eat for seven hours.
And at the end of that, I was still just so excited.
And so just--- and just so engrossed with what was going on in front of me,
I fell in love.
And I said, "Wow! This is what I need to be doing for the rest of my life."
After that I rotated with neurosurgery and orthropedic surgery.
Both great specialties.
Not for me for various reasons.
As I explored plastic surgery further,
I learned that there is much more than just
cosmetics and burn patients or cleft lip, cleft palate.
There's, you know, for example, hand surgery.
A lot of plastic surgeons can specialize in hand,
which is something that I'm very interested in.
Micro surgery is another one,
where you do complex reconstructions,
using microscopes to reconnect either vessels or nerves,
when you're moving body parts or doing complex reconstructions.
That stuff to me is like Sci-Fi.
And that stuff gets me really, really excited.
So you guys know why I chose medicine.
You guys now know how and why I chose plastic surgery.
Let me tell you what I wish I had done differently.
So,
the main thing it comes down to is know yourself.
Now, that's going to require a lot of introspection.
That's going to require a lot of experiences.
And the best way you're gonna learn what you like and don't like,
is by getting out there.
So what I wish I had done in the past, looking back,
is actually spend time with Pediatric Gastroenterologist.
Or even Adult Gastroenterologist, when I was in college,
and when I thought that is what I wanted to do.
The earlier you figure out what it is you do and do not like, the better off you're gonna be.
Know yourself.
For me, it's I need a constant challenge.
Being adequately challenged is important to everyone
in having a fulfilling and satisfying career.
And for me, that came in a lot of technical and intellectual challenge that plastic surgery had.
So figure out what it is you do and do not like.
Maybe you really like talking to people at length
and having deep discussions and understanding their inner workings.
Maybe psych is good for you or maybe you really love--
I loved-- I was interested in ortho because I loved like the mechanics,
and I have a very engineering kind of mindset,
and I thought that maybe that would be a good fit for me.
What do you like to do for fun?
What do you like about school or your activities?
What brings you joy?
I think that's gonna be very helpful
in you figuring out what it is you want to do.
So, the other way of doing that
is getting out there and shadowing or doing research
or just getting out there,
and working with those physicians in that field
that you are interested in.
So, I did clinical research and shadowing as an undergrad student with stroke patients.
And I was a neuroscience major.
I love the brain.
It was like-- still is one of my favorite blocks from med school.
You know, localizing the stroke lesion, things like that.
I think the brain is fascinating.
I love the brain.
But I learned that it wasn't just really the field for me.
In medical school, I did clinical research
and I was working closely with a pediatric gastroenterologist.
That again gave me a lot more insight as to what they actually do,
and again made me realize it's not for me.
So, the best advice I can give you is get out there.
Shadow.
Do research, do whatever it is that gets you...
in the trenches with the doctor, so that you actually understand what it is to be
a practicing pediatric gastroenterologist,
practicing orthopedic surgeon,
practicing emergency physician.
So ultimately, it comes down to two things,
one is understanding your personality,
both in a professional setting and outside.
What it is that you do and do not like?
And then two is getting exposure to those fields that you are really interested in.
That can be through research, through shadowing, etc.
So let me know what is your specialty of interest.
How did you get there?
What are your thoughts?
Leave a comment down below.
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and I will see you guys in that next one.
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