Summary

Kay begins the chapter with a metaphor that medicine is “the host who manages to keep you at their party hours after you first think about leaving” (231). He argues that although he has thought about leaving many times, he has suddenly realized that he is in his thirties and still going. Kay says that the life of a consultant is beginning to look pretty appealing. First, however, he has to get through his senior registrar posts, placements that mean that he has “ultimate responsibility” for the failures of everyone (232). Naturally, this responsibility makes him quite anxious and, after going to the GP, he must be monitored for high blood-pressure. When a patient makes a comment upon seeing his monitor that “it’s funny -- you don’t think of doctors getting ill,” Kay reflects that this is part of something bigger, that we...