News Flash: I love surgery.
No surprise there.
But interestingly enough, the thing that really clinched it for me did not happen in the OR. I was on call last night, which basically means I worked during the day (it's usually 6am to 6pm, ish) and then stayed overnight in the hospital to do more work. It's better than it sounds, if you like what you're doing. Anyway, I was on the consult service with the 2nd-year general surgery resident, who is really awesome - knew exactly what he was doing, had a good idea of what I knew and what I was supposed to get from the experience, and a very good teacher. Anyway, so we get a few calls, go see a few consults, and before I know it, I look at the clock and it's past midnight. It was crazy. I hadn't eaten in 7 hours, I hadn't slept in 20, and I felt like I could stay there working for another 24 hours. It was that good.
Now, that isn't to say that the OR is not as good. It's also awesome. I got to operate the bovie a bit this week, may throw some sutures this week (which, yes, I got to do during OB/GYN, but let me have this)! So I think it's clear. It's surgery for me. I know that, at least.
But I also realized that there's just a ridiculous amount of stuff I don't know. More than that, there's stuff I don't even have a clue about, and then there's stuff I don't even know that I don't know. I'm beginning to understand why residency training involves such long hours... it's not just about torture and all that "they made people stronger back in the days of the giants, when men were men, and women were in the kitchen" old-hat stuff you hear people talk about, it REALLY takes lots and lots of time to see enough patients, get enough experience to be worthy of someone's trust that you can competently take them into a room and commence cutting them wide open. It's beginning to dawn on me just how puny and insignificant the medical student is in the scheme of the patient's care. Still, it doesn't make me hate work, or want to do it less, it make me want to do it more, if anything, so I can see all these cases I need to see, get splashed with the Magical Pus of Knowledge or whatever.
At a certain point last night - I think some time between when we put an NG tube in a lady with SBO and when we did a bedside I&D on a man with a freak-nasty foot ulcer with malodorous pus that could kill a panda - and I'm about 75% sure this was not a dream, while we were just sitting in the resident's room waiting around, I grabbed this humongous tome, a surgical manual of some 2000 pages, and just started reading. Page one. History of surgery. It was fascinating. For example, did you know that surgeons had been looked down upon by medical doctors even as far back as ancient Greece? Still, even back then. Just goes to show you, some things never change.
Also, though, I learned that surgery and anatomy were not taught together until the middle ages, maybe the 13th or 14th century even, I can't remember exactly (Ed's note: and even if I did, there's a 25% chance my subconscious created that fact, so take with grain of salt).
Anyway there's lots of cool historical stuff in there and I'm not going to do your work for you and just spit back the good stuff. If you're interested, which you may or may not be (I completely understand people not liking surgery, it's not for everyone) go have a look for yourself. Find a large, old-looking yellow-paged book with "Surgery" on the spine in cursive, something along these lines, and you're in business.
But I'm still waiting on how the army-navy retractor got it's name, and which side is Army and which is Navy...I have heard Navy is the longer one, but that's from a disreputable source. Namely, the internet.
More to come, but don't hold me to that.
But interestingly enough, the thing that really clinched it for me did not happen in the OR. I was on call last night, which basically means I worked during the day (it's usually 6am to 6pm, ish) and then stayed overnight in the hospital to do more work. It's better than it sounds, if you like what you're doing. Anyway, I was on the consult service with the 2nd-year general surgery resident, who is really awesome - knew exactly what he was doing, had a good idea of what I knew and what I was supposed to get from the experience, and a very good teacher. Anyway, so we get a few calls, go see a few consults, and before I know it, I look at the clock and it's past midnight. It was crazy. I hadn't eaten in 7 hours, I hadn't slept in 20, and I felt like I could stay there working for another 24 hours. It was that good.
Now, that isn't to say that the OR is not as good. It's also awesome. I got to operate the bovie a bit this week, may throw some sutures this week (which, yes, I got to do during OB/GYN, but let me have this)! So I think it's clear. It's surgery for me. I know that, at least.
But I also realized that there's just a ridiculous amount of stuff I don't know. More than that, there's stuff I don't even have a clue about, and then there's stuff I don't even know that I don't know. I'm beginning to understand why residency training involves such long hours... it's not just about torture and all that "they made people stronger back in the days of the giants, when men were men, and women were in the kitchen" old-hat stuff you hear people talk about, it REALLY takes lots and lots of time to see enough patients, get enough experience to be worthy of someone's trust that you can competently take them into a room and commence cutting them wide open. It's beginning to dawn on me just how puny and insignificant the medical student is in the scheme of the patient's care. Still, it doesn't make me hate work, or want to do it less, it make me want to do it more, if anything, so I can see all these cases I need to see, get splashed with the Magical Pus of Knowledge or whatever.
At a certain point last night - I think some time between when we put an NG tube in a lady with SBO and when we did a bedside I&D on a man with a freak-nasty foot ulcer with malodorous pus that could kill a panda - and I'm about 75% sure this was not a dream, while we were just sitting in the resident's room waiting around, I grabbed this humongous tome, a surgical manual of some 2000 pages, and just started reading. Page one. History of surgery. It was fascinating. For example, did you know that surgeons had been looked down upon by medical doctors even as far back as ancient Greece? Still, even back then. Just goes to show you, some things never change.
Also, though, I learned that surgery and anatomy were not taught together until the middle ages, maybe the 13th or 14th century even, I can't remember exactly (Ed's note: and even if I did, there's a 25% chance my subconscious created that fact, so take with grain of salt).
Anyway there's lots of cool historical stuff in there and I'm not going to do your work for you and just spit back the good stuff. If you're interested, which you may or may not be (I completely understand people not liking surgery, it's not for everyone) go have a look for yourself. Find a large, old-looking yellow-paged book with "Surgery" on the spine in cursive, something along these lines, and you're in business.
But I'm still waiting on how the army-navy retractor got it's name, and which side is Army and which is Navy...I have heard Navy is the longer one, but that's from a disreputable source. Namely, the internet.
More to come, but don't hold me to that.
you're starting to sound more like a surgeon jock each day turkleton
ReplyDeleteis this something new, brother bear?
ReplyDelete