Surgical Rotation: Week 2

Holy cow this week went by fast!  I got to do and see so much.

Monday: I saw a few patients in clinic. I diagnosed an inguinal hernia, saw a patient for a follow up after his inguinal hernia repair, and diagnosed a patient with cholecystitis.

Tuesday: Was a looooooong day.  17.5 hours!  We're at the hospital from 5:30 until 11 at night.  Just as we were about to finish up our last surgery of the day, we got a page from the ER for a patient with acute appendicitis.  We ended up rushing him up to the OR.  I got to learn how to work the laparoscopic camera and put a stitch in at the end.  Near the end of that one, we got another page from the ER for a patient with acute abdominal pain because of a small bowel obstruction due to an incarcerated umbilical hernia.  He was blowing chunks all over the place so we got him up to the OR quickly as well.  And believe it or not, just as we were finishing that one up, we got another ER page for an emergency consult on somebody with a suspected bowel perforation.  But, by the time they were ready to take her up to the OR, it was 11PM and they sent us home.
But by the end of the day, I had seen a hernia repair, an anal fissurectomy, an anal dilation under anesthesia, a lipoma excision, a laparoscopic appendectomy, an exploratory laparotomy/umbilical hernia repair, and 3 colonoscopies.

Wednesday: Ugh.  This wasn't my favorite day.  I was assigned to present our small bowel patient that was placed in the ICU.  He was super acute and I wasn't even told about this really bad condition he might be developing, so I felt really stupid when getting questioned about him.
In addition, Wednesdays are usually reserved for Academics, but the residents were taking care of a lot of cases up in the OR.  So instead of the whole team meeting, Kyle and I got to sit in Dr. Edwards office and got quizzed for about 2 hours.  He wasn't mean, but I couldn't answer very many questions so I ended up feeling even dumber.
Tuesday beat me up physically.  Wednesday knocked me down mentally.

Thursday: I spent the day in clinic with Dr. Edwards seeing his consults and post-op follow ups.  Then, for lunch he took me out for sushi.  It was cool to be able to spend that much 1:1 time with my attending.  Not sure that anybody else in our class even sees their surgical attending let alone spends a whole day with him/her for face to face instruction.

Friday: There were only a couple cases scheduled for the OR today and Dr. Edwards didn't have anybody in clinic, so it was mostly a study day.  I did, however, get to scrub in on a laparoscopic cholecystectomy and they let me drive the camera for the whole procedure!  It was really cool and they told me I did a good job.

I'm kinda sad that I'm half-way done with this rotation.  I mean, the mornings are early.  The days are long.  But, I am really enjoying myself.  On top of that, Pensacola is really pretty.  I think I'll actually be kinda sad going back to Gainesville.

Week 1

Week 1 of clinicals = done.

So, in the last 5 days I have drained an abscess; scrubbed in on a laparoscopic cholecystectomy; put my first buried suture into a real live human being; observed a lap appy, right hemi-colectomy, and a couple hernia repairs; learned about medical coding/billing; and seen multiple patients in clinic.

Just kickin it in between surgeries

 I am really liking this rotation.  It really helps that I'm with a great team.  The days are long, but I've really enjoyed myself thus far.  While I still see myself in an area of medicine with more long term contact with my patients, I love the technical aspect and instant gratification of surgery.  There aren't many specialties where you get to fix somebody like you do in Gen Surg. 

Clinical Year: Day 1

Today I started clinicals.  My first rotation is surgery here...

at the Pensacola Naval Hospital.

I'm pretty lucky that I don't have to do this one alone.  My buddy Kyle Williams is on the same service with we so, we carpooled to work today at 8 AM.

When we showed up, we went through a very short "orientation" and were introduced to our preceptors.  I'll be working with an awesome attending physician, Dr. Chad Edwards, and his 4th year resident Dr. Marc Northern.  Kyle and I are very lucky in that there are no other medical students with us.  Just 3 other residents.  We will get to spend much of our time one-on-one with the chief resident and the attending, which is pretty rare in a teaching hospital...especially for PA students.

We spent much of the morning talking with Dr. Edwards about how he wants to teach us and what he expects from us as students.  While sitting in his office, Dr. Northern came and asked if I would like to do an incision and drainage on a leg abscess.  I jumped at the opportunity!  And so, on my first day of clinical year, I got to slice open somebody's leg with a scalpel, squeeze pus out, and pack the wound with gauze.  It. Was. Awesome!

Lastly, we went on rounds with the residents and attending.  There were only 3 patients so it didn't take long.  Dr. Edwards refuses to take longer than 30 mins rounding on his patients...no matter how many patients he has.  He says surgeons have short attention spans.  This will be much different when I get to Internal Medicine where rounds take 2 hours!

Tomorrow, I get to start bright and early.  I need to be at the hospital by 5:30 to round with the residents, then with the chief resident, in time for 7:30 scrub in :-/  Oh well, such is the life!