It seems I'm the trauma magnet. On my first two nights on call as the trauma chief, we've gotten two patients with iliac artery/vein gunshot wounds, two ER thoracotomies, an ER pericardial window, and a splenectomy (it's hard to explain how rare THOSE are these days in trauma, though my dad had one in the 70's for a lacerated spleen). That's in addition to all the other uninjured or varyingly sick and injured patients that we admitted overnight. You see, trauma surgical residents LIVE for operative trauma. So much of trauma care nowadays is multispecialty nonoperative care, that "trauma surgery" has become an oxymoron.

I can't believe I get paid to help sick people by operating on them - there's nothing like it in the world. I don't get bored with that. I guess that's why God has me in this vocation, which He providentially knew would be endlessly interesting.