I would have gone into architectural engineering. I had wanted to be an architect, but didn't have the artistic skills to make it through such a major at the time before computer graphics. My sister's boyfriend was an architecture major and I was wowed by project he did, and then got a D on. I also was very good in mathematics as well and took a lot of classes with the engineering majors my freshman year, almost switching to EE during my sophomore year, but a trip to the hospital to have my appendix removed is what changed my mind.
Lighthouse commented "Its funny because many believe that attorneys make a fortune but when you consider what your effective hourly rate is after considering all of the hours that you work on stuff for free (i.e. pro bono work, administrative work, work for clients that stiff you, etc)."
Well, I was one of the unlucky ones to get accepted to medical school (lucky at the time but in hindsight not so lucky now). I did not go into medical school to make money, unlike a lot of the more recent grads. I knew I would have a somewhat difficult lifestyle, but would have decent financial compensation to offset it. Once I finally got into practice after 4 years of medical school and 6 years of residency and fellowship training, I saw reimbursement reduced every year since then (1990). We have found out that for approximately 40% of the ER patients encountered, we do not get paid one cent (self-pays, aka no-pays and insurance denials). I work twice as hard now as when I started (which is true statistically speaking per RVU figures), I estimated I have worked approximately 470 weekends since starting medicine, averaged 2-3 holidays worked per year, average close to 60 hours per week and numerous sleepless nights on call over the years.
Lighthouse stated "Add this to the regular stresses of practicing law and the administrative responsibilities associated with running a practice, your life outside of work can quickly disappear."
I feel like I constantly have a target on my back (as Lighthouse I'm sure knows) and have seen numerous crazy lawsuits colleagues of mine have gone through. The stress of these actually ended making some of them physically ill. One of my associates currently has a claim for reading an x-ray of a casted arm fracture, because the cast caused a burn to the patient from the underlying chemical reaction of the plaster curing. He had nothing to do with patient other than reading the film since it was another specialist who the treated the fracture and put on the cast. I have been named in a couple of suits that were eventually dropped due to lack of any shred of evidence of wrongdoing, but the stress I went through was unbelievable. Nothing like waking up Saturday morning to find your name on the front page of the local newspaper for being named in a lawsuit before you even were served the papers. Then the claim makes you look like you were the worst serial killer ever to set foot on the planet. I understand now what this is all about, since one of my best friends is an attorney. To them it is business, and they don't feel bad at all describing the defendant in that type of fashion, because that is the way it is done.
Now there is the huge amount of local, state and Federal government regulations that have been heaped upon running a medical practice over the years. The amount of UNcompensated time to spend on these regulations in addition to routine business responsibilities such as negotiating with insurance companies has become ridiculous. Obamacare just piled on more regs with 26,000 pages of already written regulations and still counting. Added to this morass is the new upcoming ICDM-10 diagnosing coding (Waterskis caught on fire, return visit - yes this is a code!).
Finally - "If I had to do it over again I'd move to Nashville and would become a studio musician (guitar is my passion) and I would have loved every minute of it! "
Guitar is also my passion and I was in a band for awhile during medical school, but the time spent studying and class, etc. just made it possible for us to stay together. We were starting to get some regular gigs, but had to just stop because there was no longer any time for it. We played at JB's Down in Kent, Ohio, a pretty famous place that was a starting venue for some very famous musicians (doesn't exist anymore). But I realized that making it in the music industry was a huge longshot and I know some very talented people who just couldn't get near the top, so I stayed with plan A. I do play guitar as a hobby and now use my creativity, something that practicing medicine doesn't really use much, to hand build guitar effects pedals. But even that is a tough business to break into due to the number of talented people doing that as well.
Well - my rant is over as well!
