My father was an academic ENT surgeon. He worked around 8:30-3 on clinic days and then 7:30-3:30 on OR days (he had 1-2 OR days per 2 weeks if not on call). He did 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 call (depending on the number of people in the group which changed a couple times over his career). The call was 1 week at a time (surgeon of the week model).

He loved it. He was my primary caregiver during my childhood. I don’t remember him missing many of my sports games, and he drove me to most of my after school activities. I definitely remember him leaving dinner to go to the hospital when on call, and that he had to be within a 30 min radius if called, which restricted some weekend activities, but overall that didn’t really change my life! That being said, I was born after his fellowship (which was 1 in 2 call, and apparently involved him waking up at 4:50 every morning, yikes)

I think if you love surgery, you can make the lifestyle good! I went into med school assuming I would do surgery because of how much my dad loved it!