Just out of no where, Shinyin decided to ask me this question while I was chatting with her some time back. Why you choose medicine?
Actually I had been getting ready for this question for a very long time but I figured out that there is no perfect answer for this. But I think the answer I gave was pretty logic and it sounded like ‘me’.
The reason I wanna do medicine is because medicine wows me. Medicine wows me more than other fields.
Explanation? It is just like you are living with your everyday life and something special happened. And you go ‘Wow!’. That’s the feeling I want in my life and I think medicine provides me with that. When I was in the primary school, I didn’t have much good results but I would stand up and say I would want to be a doctor. And my classmates will go ‘Wow!’ (sarcastically) and yet I get their wows. When I finished secondary school, I saw the chance that I could do medicine in Russia (yet another wow by teachers and friends for going to some places unknown to normal human being that time).
And since then, medicine wows me.
First time I was so jakun when I saw the x-ray, wow!The first time I heard heart murmur, wow! First time I palpated big spleen, wow! First time I see MRI film, wow! First time I saw jaundice patients, WOW! First time I watch surgery, wth WOW! First time do surgery on cat, SUPER WOW! First time do plaster on kid, also SUPER WOW! First time do CPR, WOW! First time gave the correct diagnosis to the teacher, wow! Actually everyday when the teachers or professors ask anything and I got it right, I go wow!
See? I think I’m not as noble as other people to say that I would want to change the world or save people. The science itself makes me feel interested and I don’t feel that I’m dreaded to study anything (even thou sometimes I’m lazy) and I think I’m doing something that wow myself from time to time. It makes life better and more comfortable.
I didn’t spend time studying about an object or something created by men. I spent my time studying the world thru the human body. This that happen and reveal itself in the human body sometimes can be so ridiculous yet it is part of the nature. I learn about my own species, what is better than that?
So, hopefully those things that make me wow would slowly transform, into wow because patients remember my name? wow because I did something right that actually make a difference? That would come, and I will so far continue to being wow-ed by this profession that I had chosen for myself.
WOOHOOO!
p/s: Internal med cycle is coming to the end. 3 days of dissections coming up! WOW!
p/s: hopefully blog functioning well by now.
p/s: This is the 300th posts on my blog since 15th of January 2008!


December 11th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Ok, you the WOW man. Wow..best..
December 11th, 2008 at 11:17 am
I never dreamed,not even think of medicine b4..it merged out in my life so suddenly when i was indecive..simple to say,just a passing ticket for me,take and go..well,isn’t tat bad after all gua..?!dunno..
P.S.hope u’ll get more and more WOW in ur future!
December 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
WOW! you blogged bout your WOW theory.. makes me feel wanna blog too! i think medicine is a field that never fails and never stop WOW-ing us.. the other day when i saw a pericardial tap, -WOW! and last week heard an hepatic bruit - WOW! the first time see the pulsating brain - WOW,WOW,WOW!!
December 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
ops.. i actually wanted to schedule this post to later but it popped out already. too bad. :P
Abas : actually a bit exaggerated right?
Joe : the med school part is just like getting ready only, so many things coming in the future and seriously I think the knowledge we get after so long is just the surface of an iceberg.
Shinyin : Let’s wow together! hopefully working time also wow, if not, seriously gotta change it to ’sigh’.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
WOW! Great story.
I guess they use Russian in medic school ya? How difficult it is to learn Russian ? Are you a pro now?
December 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Wow factors in my choice, true, but my major push is the money, man. I usually don’t believe when people say they’re in it to help people. Most people go into medicine for the same four reasons: chicks, money, power and chicks.
Thank God not working in Russia. The starting pay for doctors is 3500 roubles. That’s almost half what I’m spending now.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Oh and your blog works now. And my gravatar is cool, yo!
December 12th, 2008 at 12:46 am
eh.. actually i dun kinda agree with ur 4 reasons because i dun see any of them happening leh.
chicks… look at all of us.. still single and lonely. LOL. even if when we work, the system is draining out our social time and so far i see docs complain of not enuf time rather then got time. even those who are consultants and etc, they are still complaining about not enuf time!
money… we got quite little leh.. working 24/7 and yet tat much.. the indian guy who graduated onli managed to get into studying PG when i’m final year! 7 years of MO and actually it is not to say really rich or anything. sigh.
power… urm.. provided that i become boss, if not.. i’m just a small peanut in hospital getting all the scoldings from smarter more experience docs… if they go into med thinking about tat 4 reasons, i think they are in the best illusion ever on earth. hahaha.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:46 am
welcome to gravatar world. LOL
December 12th, 2008 at 1:02 am
The thing is these four things we will get after some time. As opposed to ’saving people’, which I consider is the biggest illusion, you’ll have more and more of the 4 and less and less of ’saving people’ spirit because however also ultimately you can’t save everyone.
December 12th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
hopefully not.. let’s see what we will end up in the future..
December 12th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
“Medicine wows me more than other fields.”
wow…. (can’t help it but to say wow haha)… Medicine used to amaze me but it was quite some time that I ever thought medicine as the way how you thought they were.. In my mind, its always about work, study, tired etc… I guess I let all these gets into me and thus I loss touch of what the real essence of medicine is ^_^… Thanks ya for blogging about this..
December 13th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
“four reasons: chicks, money, power and chicks.” (copy & paste frm Fuzzyl’s comment) <—erm…my eng is not good enough to understand leh, what’s the differences btw 1st “chicks” n the last “chicks”? … can explain a? got 4 reasons meh? hehe…
***依自己的能力,做最感兴趣的事。知道[自己在做什么]?知道[自己存在的力量是什么]?就足够了,这就是生活 ^O^
December 14th, 2008 at 11:54 am
shushien,
is to emphasize on the first chicks laaa.. LOL
clichegal,
the road is still so long.. slowly ahhh.. hehe.