Yesterday at work, my attending sent me to the emergency room to get my knee checked out. Had a little bike accident, no big deal (don't freak out, mom and dad). I was lying there on the gurney in the main trauma room after my x-ray. It was strange sitting there and thinking about all the things I've seen happen in this same space. Everything from amputated limbs to dying children. Across from me, underneath the counter, I could even see the Lukas backpack. That is that an unsettling CPR machine that looks like it smashes your ribs through to your spine as a last resort to keep blood pumping through your body. Anyway, just a lot to think about while I waited for my bandage.
The nurse eventually came back to wrap up my swollen knee. I had worked with her before in the ER while I was in my intern year. She asked me what I was doing now, and I told her I was a radiology resident. Then she continued to ask me questions to figure out why I would be doing radiology.
Because of a family? Because you want to be a mom and work less? Because you want more money? Because you want to go into private practice? Family business?
Those are questions that are way more common than I would have ever thought. It's a field that doesn't seem so respected among the different medical professions in Germany. I never felt that in the US, but then I didn't spend that much time around it in the US.
I wonder what people think I do all day? Apart from the usual, I sit in the dark and stare at a computer screen.
I love my job. I like the medicine I get to experience daily, and I appreciate that I don't come home completely exhausted by patients. Mental exhaustion sure, but not the people kind. Now I'm going to go and get ready for the job that I'm still excited to go to even one year in.
