Your local pathologist is spending a wonderful week being on call. At any moment the pager will beep and I will be required to save a life with the volumes of medical knowledge that I have acquired over the past years.
Alas my time has come. The pager screeches and I have to run to the phone to here the emergency. Alas it is specimen receiving wanting to know if a blood clot needed some formalin. Not the life saving call. Maybe the next call will be more exciting.
When it comes to being a doctor, being a pathologist is pretty good. At BAMC we have to take a bus from Fort Sam to the hospital. I have seen many of my former classmates who are shells of their former selves. They don't smile, and look like they have been 8 months without sleep. They have saved many a life and have learned the ins and outs of working in the hospital.
For me it is different. I save a life by making a correct diagnosis. For instance, we get breast biopsies to help rule out cancer. When we find a small focus of cancer the patient will be treated and most likely be cured. Before this type of surveillance the cancer would have smoldered until it was symptomatic. At that point a cure would be very unlikely.
Good thing these biopsies don't come in at 3 O'clock in the morning. I will take my call and enjoy my family and I will let my friends in the other medical specialties save a life today.
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2 comments:
You're still saving lives, you just don't have to sacrifice your own life to do it. It sounds like the best of all worlds.
If I needed some test I'd want you to use your vast knowledge to help me get better.
That's why you chose it, right? You are awesome. I was thinking about you recently when our neighbor was worried about having a brain tumor. He didn't have to go as far as a biopsy, but that was the next step.
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