scalpel day 2

another great day. unfortunately, we found out yesterday that Dr.B's mom had a stroke and he would be leaving the country to see her. he leaves tomorrow and depending on her condition, may not be back until the following weekend or later. thus, tomorrow at 11am is our last surgery with him. he apologized to us and today, he let me do a lot more with him. also, all day he was much more verbal about teaching anatomy and such. i think this was his way of saying thank you. i am very sad to not being able to work with him for the remaining week. he may be back next Wednesday night, we shall see.

today started off with a inguinal hernia. at one point he stuck my finger into a hole in the inguinal canal [inside the body] and said:

 "what do you feel?"
 I felt pulsing so I said, "an artery"
"good, what artery" -Dr. B
"the femoral" -me [considering where we were during the dissection]
"good" -Dr. B

i had my finger on the freakin femoral artery. we were working so close to it that we had to make sure we knew where it was at all times. after having me stick my finger in a couple other places to feel where we were and what we were looking at, he started to close and said,
 "dorothy, you see this here [points with pickups]"
"yes" -me
"this is sub-cutaneous fat. suture there" -dr. B
then he had me come around on the side of the table that he was on and I closed up this guys sub-cutaneous tissue. then i stapled together his skin. i tried not to shake with nervousness but i think i still did when i was tying my knots. after i closed he said "dorothy, i want you to take this man's staples out during clinic next week. then you will be able to see how you did and how you can improve." best teacher ever.

the next case was a lap chole. when we prepped the patient and about to begin he said to stand across from him and then he told his assisting doctor [Dr.E] something in Tagalog. musta told him i have graduated from observer to do-er because i stayed there the whole surgery and like yesterday, put in the trochars, grabbed the gallbladder, etc etc. i was basically the first assistant [with the real doctor on next to me in case something happened] the entire surgery. i closed up all the incisions, prepped em with marcaine and we were done. during the whole surgery, dr.B complemented me and told me i was doing a very good job.

next case was a tracheostomy which i have seen a couple times before. didnt get to do much because its way more serious, as we are cutting into the patients airway. but he taught a lot.

rounded on all my patients before the OR so i was done around 4:45. an early day. one of my patient's this morning made the point to tell me before i left the room that she thinks i am going to be a great doctor.

now im going to take a nap.