Review

My program director use to always preach this simple axiom: read as if somebody’s life depends on it, because someday it will.  It may sound a bit dramatic, but in a very real sense it’s true.  And it was that severity of our work – that true sense that it mattered – that made the endless hour of studying, the endless hours in the library, the blood-shot eyes…it’s what made it all so manageable. 

Of course, there is nothing so helpful as experience.  Just last week we were working-up a post-op complication.  I was explaining things to a concerned family when one of the daughters interrupted and said “But doctor, have you seen THIS before?  This scenario?”  I was glad I could look her in the eyes and answer that I had, and that I knew what to do, and what she might expect.

But that is not always the case.  Some circumstances are rare.  Or some are variations.  We have to be prepared to handle situations that we are less experienced in; that’s why we study so hard. 

So now I find myself in a board review course.  It’s somewhat surreal, really.  Some days I can close my eyes and surgery is still a distant dream; other days I still can’t believe how far I’ve come.  To be here, this close to the end – 2 months! – just seems unbelievable. 

But there is no romance in a review.  The most common question running around these hallways is “what is the board answer?”  Here we are not reading in the hopes that it will save someone’s life.  No, here we read with the anticipated bias of an examiner, hoping to out-guess the question regardless of how we feel about it. 

I guess it helps to stay focused on the bigger picture – I do, after all, have to pass this stupid test if I want to actually be a surgeon.  It’s just one more ridiculous hoop to jump through.

And I can take it for this too – surgeon is an immense undertaking.  It is easy to lose track of some details that shouldn’t be lost.  It’s easy to get swept away in the minutia of life, or of one particular institution’s habits…it is nice to see what others think is truly important, regardless of their motive. 

With that, I better run or I’ll be late!  Here’s hoping for a productive day.