After scheduling the rest of my rotations at the end of last year, I still had two weeks left that I had to fill and I decided to go back to the general,vascular and thoracic surgeon that I did my Core Surgery rotation for 3 months with last summer. I knew that I would learn a lot from him, get brushed up on my knowledge of medicine as well as surgical technique, and that coming back as a 4th year doing an elective, he would let me do even more than he'd already let me do as a 3rd yr.
As my cardiology rotation was winding down these last few weeks, I started to think back to the looooong days, the ~40 mile commute, the heavy patient load and the sheer exhaustion and then thought to myself What was I thinking??!! , and my classmates and friends asked me the same thing. I could've easily picked a laid back elective that would have cushy hours and light responsibilities, but that just would not have been my M.O. I knew I needed to keep my mind sharp since residency is just around the corner.
So, now at 9pm I sit at my desk after only just getting home. My feet hurt, I am hungry and tired, and I have to wake up at 4am and do it again. But you know what? I had an awesome day! I was first assist on about 5 cases, including a Laparascopic Cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal using laparascopes), and even a C-section when an OB/Gyn asked our surgeon for an assist.
Coming back basically as a colleague as opposed to a student was awesome. I got hugs from everyone at the hospital who I'd worked with before; from the nurses, scrub techs, secretaries, even my surgeon who is a wonderful guy. He boasted about me to the other docs all day. I even amazed myself at how much I remembered and just did automatically, so I cannot complain- especially since I only have to be sleep deprived in medical school for 2 more weeks.
2 comments:
Oh wow, that is awesome that you just kicked right back into auto-gear! Plus, who knows but that you're going to have some really bizarre prego patients who also have liver or gall bladder or pancreas or intestinal problems requiring on-the-spot intervention from you?
Amy: Yes, that does happen, and boy is it a mess lol. At that point the OB/Gyn can choose to call in assistance from a general surgeon. After residency I want to do a fellowship (Urogynecological surgery/pelvic floor reconstruction) in which I sub-specialize into more of the surgical side of OB/Gyn. So I would be doing surgeries in the female pelvis like hysterectomies, repairing ruptured ovarian cysts,repairing uterine prolapses etc. :) less moms waking me up at 3 in the morning ;)
Post a Comment