Transplant

Well the word is out. I'm planning to specialize in transplant surgery. I've met with some of the transplant surgeons who seem very enthusiastic about training me over the next 7 or 8 (yes, that's not a typo) years and I'm meeting with the transplant chairman soon to plan for the coming years. I'm ridiculously excited about it and therefore I'm sure those I've spoken with recently have heard entirely too much about it. I never would have seen this one coming. Of all the specialties I have pondered this one never made the list. The lifestyle can be insane, although I've learned that it doesn't have to be. The lifestyle has kept me from deciding sooner and if anything causes me to change my mind down the road it would be the potentially long and irregular hours.
Here are the reasons I'm taking the leap:

• Transplant truly changes and saves lives. We snatch people within days of dying from liver failure and give them a new chance at life. We free individuals from 3 days per week of hemodialysis. Diabetics are done with insulin injections and saved from any further devastating effects of diabetes.
• I like maximally invasive surgery and that is precisely what transplant surgery is- the only time we do laparascopic surgery is to take kidneys out of donors. In general I don't really enjoy working through tiny holes- I like having blood and bowels in my hands to feel most effective.
• The surgeries are incredible- I will train to transplant the liver, kidney, pancreas, small intestine and what is called a multivisceral transplant where you transplant several organs at once- often a liver, small intestine, stomach and possibly pancreas and kidney. In the multivisceral transplant you basically take all the organs out and have an empty abdomen and then put the new ones in.
• The procurement (going to get the organs from the donor) is amazing as well.
• I will do transplants in people of all ages: infants through the elderly which provides a nice variety and different technical challenges.
• The future of transplant is intellectually stimluating! Xenotransplantation- basically taking organs out of pigs and other animals and placing them in humans. I will work in the lab of one of the premier transplant surgeons in the country. Many believe that he will likely be the first to figure out how to prepare the immune system to successfully do this. Can anyone say Nobel Prize?
• This may sound crazy but I like the setup of the transplant system, at least here at IU. I get along phenomenally well with the transplant pharmacists, NPs, nurses, case managers and other team members. In general surgery the patients are scattered all over with dozens of nurses and support staff taking care of them but with the transplant patients they are all huddled in one unit with the same pharmacists, nurses, secretaries, care coordinators... and it builds a comraderie that I love. I'm even trying to coordinate a flag football game with all the transplant nurses.

I am full of about as many questions as you might be. I have no idea what my life will look like. What I do know is that I am in a position to not only be on the cutting edge of transplant surgery in the US but to help developing countries begin transplant programs. This leads not only to higher qualities of living but is also much more cost-effective than a lifetime of dialysis or other medical support.

I keep thinking of Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire who said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." God has made me to glorify Him and I truly believe that one big vehicle for me to do that is through transplant surgery.