Years of sitting in front of computers and being generally anti-sportive have finally paid off, and I’m now partially crippled with a left arm that’s pulsating in pain. Ok, it’s not that bad, but let’s just say that I’m suffering from some weird symptoms, and in order to clear up the confusion whether I’m drawing close to the last days of my life or if I’m simply a hypochondriac, I went to see a doctor. Sure enough I was referred to a radiologist, and that’s actually where this post was supposed to go. Here goes:
If you ever wondered who’s got the best job in the whole wide world, wonder no more, because today I was once again confirmed in my belief that there’s but one candidate who fulfills all the prerequisites for having the best job in the world. It is The Radiologist!
In order for you to understand how I came to this baffling conclusion, I’ll do a quick comparison with a job some of you probably regard as the best job in the world: movie star.
* Most importantly, the money. A radiologist, once he’s paid off his debt for the extremely expensive equipment he’ll need, will earn a shitload of money. The movie star too.Thus, radiologist 1, movie star 1.
* The radiologist will have to go to university and spend quite some time studying. The movie star most probably not. But they have to work out at least twice a day, eat healthy and undergo major cosmetic surgery once they’ve passed the magic age of 23. Thus, radiologist 1, movie star 0.
* The radiologist will never have to see any patients. No, I kid you not. The radiologist has about fifteen assistants who handle the patients. The radiologist’s job is simply to look at the photos of people’s spines, heads, arms and a few other body parts and decide on a verdict. Uh, I mean diagnosis. The movie star on the other hand is subjected to publicity all the fucking time. They are haunted by paparazzi and maybe even stalkers. Thus, radiologist 1, movie star 0. Or have you ever heard of a radiologist who’s been stalked? Actually, that’s sort of impossible, because you never ever get to see a radiologist. For all I know the guy who just signed my diagnosis looks like Darth Vader.
Right, so here we are, with a score of 3:1, The Radiologist by a landslide defeats movie star in my fool-proof job-comparison. Please feel free to contradict my findings, but be aware that I’m almost always right.
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Funny that you mention the radiologist. A professor of mine was just telling us that a friend of hers who was a gynecologist decided to completely change his direction and become a radiologist so he wouldn’t have to deal with patients. However, not dealing with patients could also be a negative aspect of the job for some, depending on why you became a doctor, don’t you think? Anyway, hope your arm gets better…
so what´s wrong with your arm now? heart-attack?
@Catharina: Well, I guess everyone who’s in it (the medical profession) does it for the money and the prestige. And the rest become pediatricians. Oh, and the ones in it for just the money become dentists.
@aldric: Actually, I don’t know what it is yet. Doctor mumbled something about muscle tensions in my shoulders or problems with my spine. I checked out The Radiologist’s memo to the other doctor though, and apart from a marginal problem with an intervertebral disc I’m fine. So…it’s up to the other guy to find something else that could be the cause.
Shit, I knew it – I should never have stopped studying medicine!!!
@val: Yeah, no kidding, me neither. I coulda been a radiologist.
what a temporary and medical coincidence: after an accident last saturday i went to the hospital in wr. neustadt to get me checked through. at first they would´nt let me go after examining the radios, because there was something wrong with vertebraes(?), but the doc couldn´t answer my question about possible therapies. so after a day in a cozy nice hospital bed they decided to give in and threw me out, because they couldn´t find more evidence for a fracture anywhere in my spine. still feeling pain, the next day i went to akh. they radioed me again (2nd CT) and, surprise surprise, found a fractured vertebra, after showing it to whoever happened to come by and ask them for help on this case. they already fixed a time for surgery, but as i insisted they let me go home to “get some important stuff done”. as my trust in the medical personal of the akh is very damaged, i decided to go to ukh meidling the next day with my radios from neustadt and akh. there, they also noticed the fracture but were not sure if it´s an old one or if it´s from the accident. they want to make an MRT on monday for confirmation. so finally i sent all my pics to a spine specialist to innsbruck who finally gave me a competent and trustfull diagnosis of my problem, without having to ask 5 other collegues for their point of view.
what a crappy system.
uh.. and the point is: no fracture (it´s kind of an anomaly in my spine, but it´s definitly NO fracture!), no surgery (why sould they, as there is no fracture…), just some good old massages and i should be fine again soon. had i stayed in wr. neustadt i would have been okay, due to their ignorance (they didn´t even see the “fracture/anomaly” thing), in akh i would have been sliced up today for nothing at all, and in meidling i would still have to wait till monday for the next diagnosis…pfffff.
That sounds like a whole lot of fun to me. I’m wondering what the good doctor will decide on once he sees the diagnosis from his radiologist colleague. I also had to give a blood sample, so maybe he’ll come to the conclusion that it’s just an ordinary inflammation of something inside my arm. Who knows.
well, boys, I can just tell you that you are quite lucky in Austria that you can go and see three different doctors within the space of one week or less. Here in this country you are more likely to wait one month to get the first appointment, then another month to have your blood tests done, the results of these will be given to you approx. 6 weeks later (if the appointment doesn’t get cancelled and you have to wait another 6 weeks). NObody seems to care that by that time your results are so out of date that it’s rather ridiculous that even hear them.
And if you ask a doctor for advice, they tend to say: “So what would you like us to do for you?”
No kidding! This is what happened to my flatmate. I have so far just simply refused to see anyone of the medical profession in this country! All the drugs I occasionally need you can buy over the counter in the high street drugstore anyway.
But good luck to both of you!!