Surgery is done, gone, overwith!!

At long last, my 12 week surgery rotation is finally over. I finally have time to write this, now that I am on my psychiatry rotation. I am happy to say that I survived surgery (just as all our patients did, haha). And it was not the worst part of my medical school education. I actually enjoyed being on my surgery rotation. I did not like getting to the hospital at the crack of dawn (6:30am) or leaving 12 hours later (6ish), but I enjoyed the work. I loved being in the operating room, and I even liked some of the personalities I came in contact with. Some surgeons heads wouldn't fit through the doors, but I managed to get out of the rotation with (what I think will be) some good evaluations for the block.

Well, let's see, I've written about all of the sub-specialties that I started the rotation off with, then I talked about being on-call (which was every 5th night for the whole 12 weeks, weekends included). The only part I left out was the last part of my rotation, the few weeks of general surgery, with a couple of weeks of trauma.

General surgery was very interesting. In fact, I asked to do my 4th year required Sub-Internship in Surgery next year, that is how much I liked it. I was in the OR every day and scrubbed in on many cases, from abdominal surgery to vascular surgery. I saw hernia repairs, lumpectomies, laparoscopic appendectomies, lap cholecystectomies (gall bladder removal), port-a-cath insertions, tracheostomies, PEG tube placement, and many more. The typical day on general surgery starts at 6:30 AM, with rounding on my own patients. Then all of the residents and med students meet in the cafeteria at 7 AM to "run the list" of patients, make sure ever patient has been seen, and find out what needs to be done for each one, who is being discharged today, you get the idea. The OR started at 7:30, so time is of the essence. Usually, for every case, there would be an attending performing the operation, a resident who was allowed to perform part or all of the surgery, and then a medical student who got to hold retractors, and maybe even suture the wound up at the end. I even got to make the incision once. Cutting into someone is an experience that matches none other. Surgeries were back to back, and could be 30 minutes long or 8 hours long. So if there is 15 minutes between cases and it is lunch time or bathroom time, the opportunity is not wasted standing around. If possible, this time was used for writing orders on the patient we just finished operating on. I also used this time to read up on the next case, including the patient's history as well as any technical or anatomical details about the surgery. This way, I would have a better chance at answering some of those pimping questions from the attending.

Trauma was a whole different ball game. It was like being on call all the time. When traumas get called the whole team had to run (the rule was that we needed to be available within 3 min of the trauma arriving or being called over the pager) to the Trauma Bays in the ER. Besides running to traumas, we also had to round on our patients at about 6:30 AM, and then formally round with the trauma attending and discuss all of our patients at 7:15 AM. On trauma, we don't spend much time in the OR, that is, unless we have a patient going to the OR. That is just how it is.

Now that surgery is done, I have a better idea of what kind of residency I want. I liked the anatomical aspect of surgery, but not the long hours in the OR. I think this fits well with my interest in Radiology -- which is what I've decided on. The application process is in its early beginning right now. I can actually start applying in the beginning of September, so it is not that far away.

Well, that's all for now. I am with the psych people now. Who knows if I will ever be the same again.