Surgery Revisited
I mentioned here that I think I might be interested in surgery. Also, the title of my blog serves as a half-decent clue. But while before, I was just thinking about it, now I'm actually DOING something to inch closer to that profession (while still not committing to anything). This summer, I'm going to be doing some research (pronounced: reh-SURCH for many) in the wonderful field of Orthopaedic Surgery. If I'm going to spell it that way, I'll need to start practicing the above pronunciation of "research." Anyway, I digress. I'll be working on a project involving spinal fusions. That sounds really cool, doesn't it? Well, that's because it is really cool.
I've also joined the board of my school's Surgery Interest Group. We just held an event tonight about how to get the most out of the summer research experience, and it provided some great insight into what we want to do while we're participating in surgical research. Basically, the idea is to think the OPPOSITE of how doctors think. Sound weird? I'll explain. Doctors are great diagnosticians. At least, they're supposed to be. If they ("we"?) see a person with stomach pain in the lower right quadrant we (that's right, "we") immediately start thinking of differential diagnoses that fit the symptoms. Broken arm? No. Heart attack? Not likely. Appendicitis? Ding! But when you're doing research, you want to keep an open mind and think critically. For example: for a while, the docs saw recurrent gastric ulcer disease as something that demanded a gastric resection (cutting out the stomach) if it was persistent enough. Then, in the 80's, Barry Marshall did a little investigation, and found that it wasn't exactly as everybody thought. He isolated a bacterium, Helicobacter Pylori. Then, to prove his point, he drank it, giving himself stomach ulcers which he subsequently cured using antibiotics. Then they gave him a Nobel Prize! Sweet!
Today, medical students like myself know all about H. Pylori. Of course they cause ulcers. What else would do that???
Another thing they told us is that you don't have to turn off your cerebrum after you're trained as a surgeon. This was a very important thing to learn as I don't like the perception of surgeons as brainless carpenters, especially "Orthopods" (sounds more like a crustacean than a doctor), and anything I hear that reinforces how false that is makes me feel better.
So what do we learn from all this? You can win a Nobel Prize for making yourself sick, but this practice is advisable only if you know how to make yourself better again.
Oh, and that I really like surgery.
I've also joined the board of my school's Surgery Interest Group. We just held an event tonight about how to get the most out of the summer research experience, and it provided some great insight into what we want to do while we're participating in surgical research. Basically, the idea is to think the OPPOSITE of how doctors think. Sound weird? I'll explain. Doctors are great diagnosticians. At least, they're supposed to be. If they ("we"?) see a person with stomach pain in the lower right quadrant we (that's right, "we") immediately start thinking of differential diagnoses that fit the symptoms. Broken arm? No. Heart attack? Not likely. Appendicitis? Ding! But when you're doing research, you want to keep an open mind and think critically. For example: for a while, the docs saw recurrent gastric ulcer disease as something that demanded a gastric resection (cutting out the stomach) if it was persistent enough. Then, in the 80's, Barry Marshall did a little investigation, and found that it wasn't exactly as everybody thought. He isolated a bacterium, Helicobacter Pylori. Then, to prove his point, he drank it, giving himself stomach ulcers which he subsequently cured using antibiotics. Then they gave him a Nobel Prize! Sweet!
Today, medical students like myself know all about H. Pylori. Of course they cause ulcers. What else would do that???
Another thing they told us is that you don't have to turn off your cerebrum after you're trained as a surgeon. This was a very important thing to learn as I don't like the perception of surgeons as brainless carpenters, especially "Orthopods" (sounds more like a crustacean than a doctor), and anything I hear that reinforces how false that is makes me feel better.
So what do we learn from all this? You can win a Nobel Prize for making yourself sick, but this practice is advisable only if you know how to make yourself better again.
Oh, and that I really like surgery.
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