Why I Have the Best Job in the World

I was laughing as I read the Independent Urologist's post (especially the comments) on why his job is better than a professional tennis player's job. I don't think I can ever compete with the jokes a urologist, gynecologist or proctologist must encounter during their day-to-day interactions with patients, but I just can't imagine any job cooler than mine. Here's why:

1. Our technology is “way cooler” than the iPhone or the new iPod touch – imagine waving a wire around in someone’s heart to generate a 3-D reproduction of their anatomy! (see figure) Cool.


2. Where else can someone place a few wires in someone’s heart under a local anesthetic and permanently cure a patient of their lifelong arrhythmia in as little as an hour and have them walk home four hours later?


3. My services are still in demand and appear to be growing.


4. Pacemakers. Probably the single best invention to improve one’s quality of life. One minute the person is lying head-down in Trendelenberg position with a blue face and anxious look with a heart rate of 20 – and with the placement of a wire in their heart, watch them turn pink, smile, and joke about their earlier predicament – amazing.
   
   Almost more amazing is the ability of placing a third pacemaker wire to the far side of someone's severely weakened heart to help improve its function and their quality of life. Awesome.


5. Defibrillators. Despite the media negativism recently, these devices are miraculous engineering marvels that can monitor fast and slow rhythms 24/7/365 and treat them, if needed, with a life-saving shock. I will never forget a young woman I saw years ago – a young mother (age 34) with two kids and a loving husband who was diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy (very weak heart muscle) but felt absolutely fine. She had lost a brother at age 30 of sudden death. She was initially very resistant to having a defibrillator placed, but finally agreed to the procedure after several weeks of consideration and second opinions. Her implant was uncomplicated.
   
   One year later, while walking with her girls on a late summer evening, without warning, she collapsed and woke to see her two girls asking her why she fell. She wasn’t sure. So she came into our office. We checked her device and found she had a sudden episode of ventricular fibrillation and was resuscitated by her device. She remains alive today.

Yeah, baby, this job’s the best.

-Wes