Swedish Premed Student from UK interviews Dr. Kulak

That's just like, you know you're gonna have it come up again through medical school. Of course you have organic chemistry and chemistry, those things you have to do. Psych is always good for sure. Especially in this field. Okay.

Yeah. When you did, you always knew you wanted to go to medical school. When did you?

My dad's a surgeon. So I wouldn't say I always knew that I was gonna become a doctor or wanted to do it, but I definitely, by the time I was like teenage years when I went to college, I went with the intention of probably going to. So I kind of knew that I liked that I always liked the sciences more. I definitely didn't know I wanted to be a surgeon or what. I just kind of actually, I remember when I applied to college, I wrote my essay to get into college. I think I wrote up on being endocrinologist and you know, work with diabetes and hormones and actually nutrition maybe because I was applying for a nutrition major. I don't remember. Maybe that's why. But so you know, I wrote about that's more primary care even. So I didn't even know. I had no idea what I was going to do until probably into medical school is when I knew certain versus medicine. But in high school I think I kind of started to know that I liked sciences and liked the idea of doing medicine or something like that.

How many years of education did it take?

So for me it's different with the way the years are. So high school goes up to. You're like 18 when you finish high school. So after high school I did four years of college, then that's when you apply. I went to medical school. Actually I took a year off between college and medical school. And then after college I worked for a year in and do cancer research. But then I did. So I did four years of college, then I did four years of medical school, then I did five years of residency and then another year of fellowship. So it was a lot of years. So it's a lot of years. And then I worked between college and medical school because I just wanted to. I thought I was gonna work and travel and. How long have you been a doctor now? Oh, from here it's been six. I've been here after fellowship at least six years. Right. And how old are you? How am I? Yeah, I'll be 39 in November.

See, you're still so young even after all of that schooling.

Yeah, yeah.

And how did you decide to be a head to neck surgeon?

So you know those decisions you make kind of step by step along the way. I find the first decision is you kind of learn pretty soon into medical school. Maybe not some people sooner some people, it's right at the end. But you kind of realize what approach and how you like to approach patients. Some people like dealing with more overall health. Health and more of the detective work, the diagnostics and the management of people. And that's going to be more the medicine side then other. Like I knew I kind of liked the surgical approach, treatment definitive kind of like, oh, you have a problem, let's fix it, let's do this. Even though I ended up in more of a cosmetic field. But that's even an attitude of even like a general surgeon. I mean, you've got a problem with your gallbladder, let's take the gallbladder out. You've got a problem with your joints, let's fix it. And it's different versus, you know, there's always medical approaches to things that are another way of doing it. And some people like that. And some of it's personality too. If you're under stress or under, you know, like. And you don't like that kind of like stressful environment, surgery may not be the right choice. So it's different personalities, I think. But then it's also the way you like to approach patient care and your personality with that. So you kind of figure that out as you're doing things is what you kind of gravitate towards. But sometimes at size, you're kind of dealing with different patients or dealing with different rotations and how you feel on that rotation once you start to do that. I think most medical programs, you don't have to make that decision right away. You shouldn't have to at least because sometimes your people are surprised. Some people who are dead set on being a surgeon realize they get in there and the feeling of. Or the feeling of being in surgery or the feeling of interacting on that level, a different level with patients is just not what they like. And they actually like a different environment. The discussions, the diagnostics and the evaluation, you know, and other things. And they decide to go a totally different. Some people then decide even they don't even like dealing with patients. And you could become like a radiologist and you really don't have to even talk to patients if you don't want to. Or an anesthesiologist, where you just talk to them for a little bit, then you put them to sleep, you know, so. Or pathologists. And you don't even deal with patients, either of that. So there are so many areas of medicine that even if you find as you're in it that you don't like certain things, even if it's that you don't like patients, you know, you can still find a really nice area of medicine, but I'm sure you'll like patients.

And do you have, like, your favorite surgery?

Oh, I don't know. There's favorites. I mean. I mean, I always do. I mean, I like doing facelifts and eyelids. You know, those are always nice surgeries, but some I'm sure they kind of like the waynes of which was the favorite. But definitely like the surgeries that, you know, I like those because you just see, like these nice changes and you get to really appreciate a really good result. So I like those. Yeah, and they're fun surgeries.

And also what I like the surgery to do. Which one would have the most risks?

Risks.

I guess.

I mean, none of them are that risky. But, you know, I mean, facelifts, I guess, have more risks of having bleeding, you know, and complications probably than probably some of the others, but they're pretty safe. And we answered.