Surgery Week 1

So this past Monday, I really started my M3 year with my first week of Surgery.

Week 1 Day 1
We had orientation at 8:30 followed by some training sessions that were supposed to last until 3 p.m. And then at 3 p.m. we were supposed to go to our unit and meet the docs.

I’ve always noticed that orientations never really orient you to anything. It’s like playing that game taboo, where you have to guess what someone is talking about and they talk to you about it without using any of the actual words that would help you to know what they are talking about. So as I sat there in orientation, I listened to them talking about stuff and just felt like I was getting more and more confused and had no idea what the heck my time in surgery was going to be like.

Then we found out that a bunch of our training sessions got cancelled and so we were supposed to report to our units about 2 hours earlier than we expected. We met with our Chief Resident who is the junior doctor in charge of us. He decided that we needed to go find a room to sit and talk in. To find a room where we could talk, he took us through 8 different wings of the hospital, and finally we ended up in an equipment room somewhere. Afterwards, he took us to get ice cream. Then we walked around some more. It was a really bizarre first day.

Week 1 Day 2
4:00 a.m. is WAY too early to wake up in the morning. One of my friends described it perfectly. He said, “I didn’t know that 4:00 a.m. existed.”

On my way to the hospital, I realized that buses don’t run that early in the morning. Is that depressing or what? So I had to walk. The walk itself isn’t that bad in terms of distance. But it goes straight up this really steep hill. So by the time I got there in my shirt and tie, I was basically soaked in sweat. Nice.

The rest of the day was just pure confusion. We had a clinic day where we saw patients in clinic. That part of it was really interesting and fun. But since we’re part of a surgical oncology team (cancer patients), the doctors are really protective of their patients. So I didn’t really get to DO a lot. I end up getting home around 6:30… and I am BEAT.

Week 1 Day 3
I’m telling you… 4:00 a.m. is WAYYYY too early. Today, we go to the Operating Room for the first time. The surgery I was scrubbing in for wasn’t that complicated. It’s just a Port-a-cath placement which is like a big internal IV. But just to go into the OR, is a COMPLICATED mess. There’s a certain way to wash your hands or “scrub.” There’s a certain way to receive the towels to dry your hands. There’s a certain way to put on the gown. A certain way to put on the gloves. It’s really complicated. I must have looked terrified, because everyone was incredibly nice to me. And talked to me like I was 2 years old.

The surgery was pretty short. But it was incredibly cool. My job was to not touch stuff I'm not supposed to and hold things when they handed them to me. Got to start somewhere, right?

Week 1 Day 4
We had computer training at 8 a.m., so I got to sleep in ‘til 6:30! I was so happy the night before, I felt like a kid at Christmas. When 6:30 rolled around, the accumulated tiredness I guess had hit me at once, because I felt like someone had beat me up. My eyes were all puffy and swollen and every muscle and joint in my legs and feet hurt. I guess one thing I forgot to mention about being on surgery is that you almost never sit down, and you walk EVERYWHERE.

Computer training nearly put me to sleep... but afterwards, we had a sit down session with one of the docs that has been around for a very long time. We discussed a case scenario and this really was an incredibly cool experience. To sit there with a doctor who has all of this experience and guides you through a clinical situation step by step is really a privilege. And it gives you incredible insight into the kind of problem solving that a doctor does every day.

I got home by 4:30. I had these big ideas about cleaning and studying. In reality, I took a nap, ate dinner, and went to bed.

Week 1 Day 5
Ugh. It’s 4:00 a.m. again. This just isn’t cool.

We get to watch an exploratory laparotomy, which is a fancy term for cut open the stomach and look around for more stuff to cut. It was INCREDIBLY cool. I really got a lot out of this. Plus, the anesthesiologist really took a liking to me and brought me over to the head of the table so that I could see the operation from the top.

Week 1 Day 6
It’s my first kind of day off for the week. Only it’s not really a day off. I’m off during the day, but I have to go in at night to work overnight. I end up in a 4 hour operation that takes 2 hours to prepare for. We did an “exploratory laparotomy” because this guy had a dead pancreas. It was pretty unbelievable. Here is this guy that I had been talking to just an hour ago and now my hands are holding his stomach open while other doctors are removing rotten pieces of flesh from inside of him. The whole time, everything is moving with every breath he takes. At times, you just can’t believe half the stuff you’re seeing. It was a tiring night. At 3:15, I put my head down to sleep. At 5:15, I was awake and down in the ER to help with a motorcycle accident victim. He had several big ugly cuts on his thigh and knee. I held the skin together while the doctor I was with stitched him up.

My reward… I got to stitch up a cut on my own. I put in 4 stitches. The doctor said it looked beautiful. It was incredibly cool.

Week 1 Day 7

I didn’t get home until 11:00 a.m. this morning. I am pretty beat. I took a 2 hour nap this afternoon, and now all I want to do is sleep. I still haven’t studied. But I feel like I’ve learned so much in a short week. Surgery is definitely not the profession for me. But it is incredibly cool getting to be a part of these operations.

My first week wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It definitely wasn’t easy. 4:00 a.m. is just incredibly awful. But at the same time, once I get to the hospital, I’m having fun and I’m excited to be out of the classroom.

Most importantly… I’m 1 week closer to finishing my third year.