Today I spent a few hours helping in Fracture Clinic, and I was lucky enough to see a young chap, Mike, for the second time. I was pleasantly surprised to see him again, as the Orthopaedic aspect of the surgery rotation is only two weeks. As with 95% of patients under the age of 17 with a FOOSH injury, he'd sustained his skateboarding.

I got talking with both he and his Dad. After we covered the usual follow-up stuff, prognosis etcetera and the Consultant had breezed in and out, the father asked about Med school and the oft asked "What do you want to be when you finish?"

And, as usual, it's a challenging question to answer. I posted a while ago about some possibilities, and I know which ones I really like, but, well, it's all so far away. And really, few patients actually ask the question with a deep, driving interest about my further specialty.

So I said to Mike, do you remember at Primary School, how you thought you were old and king of the school and that you knew everything? You were bigger than the other kids, and they all looked so young and small to you, right?

And then you went to High School. And on the first day, you feel like a baby. All the big kids are huge, they're not only faster and cooler than you, but they know everything. They know how school worked and where to go when you wanted to muck around or if they want to do something which teacher to talk to, yeah? Okay, cool.

Well, Med School's like Primary School, and I've got a year and a half to go.