Welcome to Back from the Abyss. I'm Dr. Craig Ecock. First of all, a little warning about my voice today. I'm in Colorado and the smoke from the

California fires is making me very hoarse. And so I'm drinking the coat tea. I'm trying to get my

voice in a place where I can actually record this, but it's a little shaky. So I apologize on the front end.

We got some amazing, beautiful, heartfelt emails from the last two episodes. Thank you so much. Every email you send me, it's like a little just gift, because in

general, I hate email because emails often ask, excuse me, is often asking me to do things that just seem like a lot of work. But emails that

come for Back from the Abyss, ah, it's such a gift. And a few of you who wrote about the last

two episodes asked me to send them on to the storytellers. And I just want to let you all know that

completing that circle and having the storyteller read your email,

oh, that's such a gift,

because then I get feedback from the storytellers

about how meaningful that was to them.

So again, all of you who write into us,

your emails are deeply appreciated,

and I will always respond to them.

So today I bring you an episode that I've been wanting to do ever since I started this podcast.

At the end of the third year of medical school, many med students have kind of an existential crisis.

After a year in the core rotations, they come to the ironic and awkward realization,

that medicine is about taking care of sick people and often very sick people.

This then catalyzes a mini rush to the specialties that don't directly deal with very ill

patients. For those of us who stayed in the specialties that are in the trenches with very

ill patients, part of our calculus in the specialities that are in the trenches with very ill patients,

part of our calculus in the choice of medical specialty is what kind of pain and suffering we think we think we can best handle.

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