So far this year there hasn’t been a rotation that I really hated.  Until now.  I HATE radiology.  There is nothing worse than sitting in a dark room all day doing a repetitive boring activity.  Which is pretty much all that radiology entails.

Luckily I am working with an Interventional Radiologist, which means that he does procedures such as paracentesis, thoracentesis, injections, drains/catheters, biopsies, etc.  All of those things are interesting the first one or two times you see them.  Then it gets pretty boring just sitting back and watching.  But at least it gives you a break from sitting in the reading room looking at X-rays.

God bless anyone who wants to be a radiologist.  It really, really isn’t for me.  I enjoy looking at radiographs for patients I am managing, but it just bothers me that during this rotation I never get to see patients or find out what is really wrong with them.  We literally are only given a snapshot of what is going on, and it’s often hard to figure out the problem because we don’t know what the clinical picture of that particular patient is.

I usually have fun for about half the day.  But after eating lunch, we come back and sit in the dark, warm room.  I literally just try everything I can to stay awake.  I’ve been drinking tons of caffeine.  I bring snacks to munch on.  I try to get up and go to the bathroom or do something to break the monotony, but really it’s just brutal.  I was so sick of it after only one day.  I really don’t know how I am going to make it through another week.

One of the radiologists told me that the nice thing about this speciality is that you don’t have to “deal” too much with patients.  I guess if that’s what you want to do, then maybe radiology is for you, but I’m definitely not cut out for out it.  I will stick to seeing patients and reading what the radiologists write in their reports.