Thursday was our last surgery with Dr. B before he left the country. We removed a very large lipoma from the neck of an old man. we started out by slicing the superficial skin all the way around and under his chin. after lots of dissecting and digging out the fatty mass, we began to close up. Dr. B started on the right side and I started on the left side and he had me do vertical mattress sutures until we met in the middle at the chin. It was great practice, I put in at least 20 of them. It was def frustrating at times as I was just starting to get the hang of the instruments but it was very very fun.
Friday we started working with Dr. E who works more than any other doctor I have worked with. It was good Friday so I got the night off since I had to... go to church.... after church, I went to joey and laura's birthday party and got home around 2am. Saturday I got up at 6am and was in a lap chole by 7:30. I had no idea that this shift would end up being around 18 hours long....if I had known, i might have gone to bed a bit earlier.
Sunday was Easter and I got the afternoon off. Monday I joined another doctor and the Captain for an exploratory laparotomy for a SBO. It was on a patient that I admitted and had been following for more than a week and it was a great way to see the whole course from her admit, hearing her symptoms, doing her PEs, looking at her imaging and labs, and then being able to actually see the anatomical reason she was having all of these problems. Surgery went long, about 4 hours, and when they started to close the doctor suggested I go talk to the family and tell them everything was OK. Since i had met the family several times, I was happy to go outside to the waiting room and explain that everything went great and the biopsies done during the surgery were all benign. They thanked me a ton and treated me like a key part of the surgical team. A very cool experience to end 'my patients' journey.
To note, during this surgery was when I decided as much fun as surgery is as a specialty, it is not for me. It was a 4 hour long surgery and though it was not boring at all because we were searching around in this women's pelvis and I got to touch intestines, see her uterus, where the sigmoid colons sits, etc etc....there were several times when I just about lost my patience and drifted off. I dont think i have the stamina and patience to do surgery's like this. it would be very hard to start a case thinking it will be quick and then you can get home to your family/friends for dinner after only to find out when you open that things are much complicated and you are going to be there for hours longer than you thought...having no say in the matter. I enjoy my free time and though it is a tremendous job to have because of the healing power and abilities you have, I think i will stick to ER. It has the procedures and fun patient interaction but with a set time shift.
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