I havent been around here in a while but saw this thread and thought i'd try to help out. I'm also in my first year out of medical school and am doing a medicine internship this year begore going on to a 3 year ophthalmology (eye doctor/surgeon) residency next year.
Medicine does have its pros and cons. Its extremely frustrating a lot of times, especially in a hospital setting, because a very large percentage of people who come in have chronic diseases like renal failure, heart failure, diabetes, COPD that you can help them manage but can't really fix. And with problems like these a lot of responsibility falls on the patient in eating right, taking their medications like they are supposed to, and following up regularly. When this doesn't happen you have people who are in and out of the hopsital constantly...there are several patients that i have admitted and discharged 5-6 times in a single month. When dealing with situations like this its very frustrating and your work can feel like a huge waste of time. Caring for people who won't or can't care for themselves is not easy. On the other hand there are patients who you feel really good about helping and getting back on their feet, and its these experiences that keep you going. Also the hours can be rough...i am just getting done a month in the ICU with overnight call every 4th night...which means come in at 7am, see your patients, round, work the rest of the day and have all the other interns sign their patients out to you at around 5pm. Then take pages, fix problems, run codes, do admissions all night, where you might get an hour or so of sleep in between, then see all your patients again, round, and finish your work the next day before signing out. This turns out to be 7am to about 12 or 1 pm the next day, so like 30 hours straight, every 4th day. You really start to wonder what you did this for when its 3am, you're tired as hell, your pager is going off like crazy, there are admissions waiting for you in the ER, and a patient is coding all at the same time.
I only have a year of this though, them ophthalmology residency is not as demanding, and as a practicing ophthalmologist it's really sweet. I plan on specializing in refractive or oculoplastic surgery, where the money is good and a lot of doctors can get away with working 3-4 days a week. Specialties like surgery, medicine, ob/gyn, tend to have very long hours, while dermatology, ophthalmology, radiology, and a few others have much fewer.
The perks that plasticsurgeon talked about are real too. I walk around the hospital and 50-60 year old people adress me as "sir." People take your word as gospel. People automatically gain a ton of respect for you when you tell them you're a doctor. This can definiitely be cool and you can tell a lot of doctors love it and walk around like they own the world, but its not something i'm entirely comfortable with. i don't like to introduce myself to patients as dr. so and so and a lot of times would prefer people not know what i do. i even lie to girls and tell them i do something else sometimes. There are a ton of nurses, medical students, and other girls all over the hospital that are just there for the taking too.
overall, medicine is a long road, very time consuming, and a real pain the the ass at times. And i'm about $200,000 in debt from school loans. But its rarely boring and very rewarding at other times too. There are also a ton of different fields in medicine, so a medical degree opens a lot of doors for you, and you can decide what you want to specialize in based on your needs and personality.
What's going to give one a bigger high; doing God's work or playing God? I think the answer is obvious. 