Med school/residency reality???

Hi,
I am trying to decide if to start pre-med courses this fall and am gathering information to help me decide. I am 30, no kids, no hubby yet, RN. I would love to follow the path of becoming a physician. But here is what I worry about or am considering. I am very close to my parents and if I had to move away for medical school it would be very difficult. I am sure it is difficult for many of you, how do you handle that? With the crazy schedule of med school then residency, do you feel like you miss out on life or do you find the stress worth it? How do you find ‘me time’ even for 10 minutes to do something you enjoy? I’m concerned about the long term effects of stress on my body. I have a family history of cardiac disease, I am healthy now and I have good ways of handling stress. How do you handle the stress? Overall, do you find the path worth missing time with parents, family, kids, personal time, etc worth it? I know this has to be a personal decision but I am curious about other people. Thanks so much for any responses. Take care!

Hi there,
Medical school is stressful but there are thousands of ways of dealing with stress that are actually healthy such as physical activity. I can tell you that when I am physically active, the stress level of residency and medical school was practically nothing.
Do I feel like I am missing something? No, I love every second of what I do. I have a very interesting job that adds to the richness of my life daily. I loved my research but I love surgery even more. I have literally touched the lives of thousands of my patients and they enrich me as much as anything else that I could possibly be doing at this time. I also have great bunch of colleagues that I enjoy working with in the form of my fellow residents.
There are thousands of people who get up every day and hate their lives and their jobs even if they do not work the 80 hours that I put in each week. I just can’t live like that and fortunatly, I do not have to. I am very fortunate to be doing exactly what I want to do and loving every second of it. I can only hope that everyone gets a shot at what they want.
Natalie