Nip Tuck

Just started on watching Nip/Tuck actually. Last night, my friends got me the series in DVD. The award-winning series tells the story of two longtime friends, actually two plastic surgeons who run a clinic in South Florida. Christian Troy ( played by the lusciously wicked Julian McMahon ) is the stereotypical self-destructive playboy who finds his life slowly changing as age and maturity finally catches up with him while his best friend, Sean McNamara ( Dylan Walsh ) is the family man facing a moral crossroads - and an approaching midlife crisis.



What strikes me in this series is the fact that it involves plastic surgery and anaesthesiology, two fields of medical specialty that I've been contemplating joining. During medical school, I had brief, fleeting plans of entering the world of surgery. Becoming a medical physician didn't sit right with me. Dispensing drugs and advice day by day bored me to absolute bits. As a budding medical student, I craved action, and lots of it. Needed to do something with my hands and surgery seemed like a challenging field that would appeal to me, and plastic surgery - the art of making people beautiful - certainly fit my profile well enough.

However once I began my career, there was a brief shortage in the anaesthesiology department where I was finally placed. I would love to say that I entered it gratefully but there was some kicking and screaming involved when they dragged me behind the scenes. Once I got into the routine of the job, I found that it suited me quite as well. Sure, anaesthesiology might not sound as exciting and glamorous as surgery, most of our work lies behind the scenes handling the monitors and the drugs for anaesthesia, the mysterious combination of science and sorcery that sends people into hopefully painless somnolence while the surgeons work their own brand of magic. Apart from the operating theatres, we also handle the day-to-day operations in the intensive care units - using antibiotics, vasopressors, diuretics and everything else in our hands to keep the poor souls alive. :)

I enjoy my work, I enjoy my patients ( well, most of them anyway... boy, do I have some horror stories from work! ) and sometimes, I enjoy my colleagues ( when we're not playing Machiavellian power games ). There are few regrets about the path I've chosen but there are certain moments, certain times when I see a surgeon at work - especially a plastic surgeon - making their little nicks and cuts, and I wonder whether I'd have done just as well with a knife.