why would anyone choose to be a surgeon do you ever wonder that because I
certainly did I actually never wanted to go into surgery I never thought in a
million years I'd be a surgeon but I did so I'm gonna give you the perspective of
five different urologists as to why they decided to go into surgery make
sure you watch the whole video because at the end I'm gonna share my story if
someone who you would have never guessed in a million years was gonna go into
surgery decided to just go for it when I entered medica school I actually was really interested in cardiology, cardiac physiology. I thought exercise physiology was really
interesting when I did a lot of self-reflection I looked at the things
that I like to do what did I like to do when I wasn't studying everything I like
to do involves making things so I think clothing cooking baking and creating and
everything I do is with my hands I'm not a lay around and read in a person and
really I like to make things and fix things with my hands and that's what I
get to do every day I think it's hardwired in my brain to
put things back where they belong I run my household that way I would clean desk
I think for incontinence and prolapse surgery especially it you get to put it
back up you get to put it back to where it belongs in most of the time that
makes it function better and I think becoming a surgeon really allowed me to
tap into some of my just natural desires to kind of fix things I mean I remember
back to the clinical rotations where I just didn't you know I was thinking
nephrology then I thought Oh cardiology and then and then I started surgery and
I thought the first day I did surgery I saw a DPL you know a diagnostic
peritoneal lavage we are you yes and that and I got
nauseous I thought well surgeries not for me
right I thought no way can't do it I mean there was this guy anyway and I
thought well shoot because I thought I could do something with my hands and
that first day I thought oh I don't think I had the stomach for it then we
went into the or and everything was squared off it was
draped off and I thought oh you know it was fine I didn't have any trouble with
open surgery but I did with the DPL somehow anyway
I really liked doing something and physically fixing something yeah
reconstructing things and I guess that's why but then then I did my urology
rotation sort of on accident in many ways but it did hear all your rotation
to realize that these surgeons enjoy their life and it was it was fun to hang
out with them they had a great personality and sense of humor I mean
that's why a lot of people in urology when they discover it but absolutely
that's absolutely true that that's how I ended up the truth of that is that I
really didn't know what I wanted to do when I was in medical school I was
actually thinking about pediatrics and then I thought about OB/Gyn and the
reality is why I got drawn into urology surgery is because the role models that
I had as a medical student for surgeons and ultimately urologist and for me that
was somebody who wanted to make a difference who was decisive in their
actions who enjoy going to work every day
and you know kind of never looked back and then those were the people that I
was drawn to and that's why I went into the field on the medical fields I
enjoyed the science but I really wanted to get down to business and I feel like
it's a surgeon I am able to get in and technically skills so why did I decide
to become a surgeon so I'll be honest I thought I was going to go into medicine
and become a subspecialist like a cardiologist or a gastroenterologist but
I did my surgery rotation and he loved it I loved being in the O R and I
thought this was so cool but I definitely had some imposter syndrome I
was like why would I I could never be a surgeon I'm not coordinated enough I am
not confident enough but I took care of my husband here because he actually told
me a story about his cousin who's an orthopedic surgeon and he said look he
was super clumsy and if he can become a surgeon so can you and while that seemed
really small at the time it actually made a huge difference because I
realized at that point that surgical training is training for a reason you
learn how to be a surgeon and so that gave me
the confidence to move forward and specifically how I decided to become a
urologist was I like surgery but I didn't really love general surgery so I
looked at all the subspecialties and looked at ophthalmology and it's it's a
great great subspecialty but I couldn't personally deal with eyes and then I
looked into ent and I looked into urology and I really loved the diversity
available to us in urology I thought the people were phenomenal as you could
see all these people I've interviewed there are great great good-hearted
people and really how seriously can you take yourself when you're dealing with
genitalia all day so I hope you enjoyed this series if you haven't seen some of
my other interviews make sure you check out my playlist below that includes
other interviews of these five great surgeons and their ideas on what they
wish they knew before they became a doctor why they love what they do and
advice for people going into a male-dominated specialty and always
remember to take care of yourself because you're worth it