When I grow up...

After a long wonderful day of various events, I got home to Mr. who, at 10:00pm, hadn't eaten dinner yet. I made him some spaghetti, and an hour or so later, technically my 'bed time', he decided that he was going to choose his specialty before going to sleep.

He started out with a list of 6:

1. Orthopedics
2. Gynecologic Oncology
3. Ophthalmology
4. Interventional Radiology
5. Otolaryngology
6. Anesthesiology

Naturally I was excited to hear 3 of the 4 ROAD specialities (if IR still counts for Radiology, that is), but I think my enthusiasm for those three delayed our bedtime unnecessarily.

This was our pro/con list (disclaimer: our pros and cons may not be the same as yours):

Orthopedics:
Pros: High pay, Lots of procedures, deals with various anatomy, challenging, has helped with research in the field, changes lives (going from not walking to walking makes patients happy)
Cons: Notoriously poor work/life balance

Gynecologic Oncology:
Pros: Interesting Procedures, knows that he finds it interesting based on his rotations
Cons: Moderate pay, would have to do OB/Gyn residency first (no guarantee he'd match in gyn onc and he doesn't want to be an OB)

Ophthalmology:
Pros: High pay, great work/life balance, cool procedures
Cons: Focused on only one tiny part of the body, early match (so he'd apply before doing a rotation in it)

Interventional Radiology:
Pros: High pay, cool procedures, possibly good work/life balance?
Cons: Would have to do a regular radiology residency first (no guarantee he'd match in the fellowship, and he doesn't want to read x-rays the rest of his life), no experience in it

Otolaryngology (ENT):
Pros: High pay, cool procedures, deals with various organ systems
Cons: No experience in it yet

Anesthesiology:
Pros: High pay, good work/life balance, requires a lot of knowledge
Cons: No procedures - would have to sit by and watch surgeons do 'the fun stuff'

Not all pros and cons are created equal, so now the list, in no particular order, is:

1. Orthopedics
2. Gynecologic Oncology
3. Ophthalmology
4. Otolaryngology

I know you're thinking 'Oh no! She lost 2 of the 3 ROAD specialties, and the 3rd is hanging on by a thread!' However, it's important to find the right speciality for him, because if he's miserable in his job, he'll be miserable at home, and I won't want to see him those extra hours throughout the week anyway!

I also am thinking that otolaryngology might be a good fit for him (and us) after doing a little more research today... the pay is really good (don't judge - we have crazy mad loans to pay off!), and it has a decent work/life balance. Plus, there are a lot of different surgeries and procedures he could do. Sure, there would be a lot of tonsillectomies, but every specialty is going to have its 1 or 2 extremely common and relatively unexciting procedures. With Otolaryngology, though, there is a wide range of less common and rather exciting procedures, too!

Now I just need to find where the good ENT residency programs are...