Surgical Life

Surgery in the winter was like living without the sun. I would wake up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning, chug some coffee, shovel out my car in the black of night, and drive myself to the hospital. I would check on my patients, write some notes, and meet my team for rounds at 5:30am. By 6:30, we would all end up at the cafeteria for what I liked to call Second Breakfast and to "run the list" of patients with the whole team. Chug more coffee, egg and cheese sandwich, then off to the OR!

I spent about a week on each team: Vascular, Pediatrics, Minimally Invasive, Surgical Oncology, Private Surgery. And every once and a while, my pager would go off and I'd race to the Trauma room to learn my ABCs - Airway, Breathing, and Circulation, or to see the result of some horrific accident. Trauma pages were always interesting, and never happy.

Operating was exciting at times, but usually I practiced my Surgical Watching Skills. As a third year, I was on the very very bottom of the Surgical Totem Pole. If I hit the jackpot, I'd get to First Assist, and perform surgeries! I amputated a right leg and a left big toe, stitched a carotid artery with tiny little needles, placed endoscopic ports, cut off chunks of colon, and performed an anal wart removal (woo hoo!). On a normal day, if I was lucky, I'd get to suture wounds closed at the end of the case, or hold the scissors or the suction. But like I said, most of the time, I'd spend the surgery standing, watching and waiting - ready to help at any moment. Debating whether or not to move my hands or pick up a tool. On a bad day, I'd be placed in an awkward position, intertwined with a surgeon or nurse, holding retractors at impossible angles, and yelled at if I touched anyone and contaminated them. My muscles would burn and burn, but the surgery depended on my discipline and steady grasp.

At the end of a day, after some lectures or sign-out (sometime between 5 and 10pm), I would head back to my car, again without the sun.

I worked about 70 hours a week on average (that means 12hrs daily M-F + 10 hours on the weekend). As a medical student, I have an 80 hour limit, and finally learned just how exhausting an 80 hour work week could be.  I completely gave up on my personal health. But honestly, my surgery rotation was one of my favorites - and even had me considering a future as a Surgeon. I learned so much so quickly and actually had a ton of fun roaming the halls of the hospital like I was on an episode of Scrubs.

If I do a Surgical rotation during 4th year, I just hope I see a little bit more of the sun...