November 19, 2007
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Ohh, we’re halfway there…
So its the halfway point of the surgery rotation and I have been able to see some amazing things
like open heart surgery. watched as the surgeons busted open the chest cavity with the bonesaw, pried it apart to reveal a still beating heart, which they then proceeded to stop, because hey who wants a heart jumping all around when you are trying to operate on it, and dump a bucket of ice (sterile) onto the heart. The ice is for basically cryogenically freezing, albeit ghetto style, the heart. It causes the oxygen requirement to become much less due to the cold. And you thought the heart didnt breathe. Of course, with the heart not beating, you may be wondering how the rest of the body gets blood? The gas monkeys (anesthesiologists) handle that, circulating the entire, erm, circulation in and out of the body through a series of tubes (just like the internet!) Then the surgeons open up a leg, and “borrow” some veins from there to graft to arteries in the hearts that were too clogged to function anymore. The arteries were too clogged because SOME people dont know when to put the burger down. Not that i am silently judging you or anything, fatty mcfatterson.
Also got to see a roux en y. What is that you are wondering? well basically, the surgeons go in, remove the patients entire stomach, and then connect a distant part of the jejunum directly to the esophagus. Of course, this requires a lifetime of tube feeding, but in the case of gastric cancer it is a pretty neat solution. No stomach? no more stomach cancer
So yes
while on the one hand i have been able to see a great deal of procedures, on the other hand, the novelty wears off rather quickly. The first time you see a lap chole, it is sweet. The second time it is neat. The fifth time…well, you feel like you could do the surgery already. So I am starting to get a little bored. Also, I am apparently retarded when it comes to using scissors. Seriously. everything else i can handle, but i actually start sweating the moment the surgeon asks me to cut sutures. Not because i am afraid of harming the patient. But because i know that no matter which hand i use, i wont be able to cut a piece of string in half with surgical scissors without making two or three attempts. And once that has happened, it doesnt matter how well you know about the procedure, or complications, or anything else that you might be pimped on. You are just the student who cant even be trusted with the simple task of cutting a string. It is disheartening. Not that more than one attending has ever specifically mocked me for it, but they dont have too. It is likely to be the final straw that could tip the scales against going into surgery
Which i have not fully decided one way or the other yet, but i am kinda leaning away from surgery at this point. Hmm…seems like halfway through third year and all the things I thought i wanted to do when i got into med school have turned out to be things I simply am not cut out for, one way or another. go fig.
time for a much needed nap, and then perhaps another zombie story update.
Comments (3)
i’m torn between internal medicine and surgery myself.
Two things:
1) Lifetime of tube feeding? Better than death, but not too fun.
2) Not CUT out for? Ha. Ha. Ha.
Does icing the heart damage it at all? Can you tell who hasn’t had surgery yet? I mean, they don’t put it directly on the ice do they? I have a feeling all my questions will seem stupid in April.