Thursday, July 26, 2012

Part 1/2, The Medical Update


So I suck. I know you must all hate me. I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve just been so busy and therefore exhausted, that I haven’t had the time or the energy to blog. I really do apologize. I’m going to separate this into two updates. One for a social life update. One for a work/medical update. This is the latter.
That Monday (the 16th) was my first day in the operating room observing Dr. H. It was the MOST AMAZING THING EVER. I was born to be a surgeon. I just can’t even explain it. It’s so amazing. I was so blessed. I got to see 8 surgeries. The first was a Left femoral exposure with superficial femoral artery atherectomy/PTA/Stent, but I wasn’t very confident, so I rally didn’t get to see much. The second was a minor procedure that they had to do in the hospital because of insurance, but it was just a L greater saphenous vein ablasion. The third one was the one that really got me. It was just a left femoral popliteal bypass revision. But Dr. H called me over and let me really look at the femoral artery. And I could see it beating, and it is so much bigger than you would expect. And I think that’s the moment I fell in love. I just can’t even explain it. Then we saw a Right Carotid endarterectomy, which was crazy. Dr. H cut open a guys carotid artery, and cleaned it out, and patched it up. Like AMAZING. You think of a carotid artery getting cut open and you think death, but there was any blood, AT ALL. The next case was an emergency case on an old lady with blood clots in her leg ( L femoral thrombectomy), again really cool. Then was the longest and coolest of the day. An Abdominal Aortal bifemoral bypass. Literally pulled this ladies guts out, cut out a piece of her aorta, and attached it to a tube, and then attached the tube to both of her femoral arteries. So cool. We then saw two femoral endarterectomies, one of them with an iliac stent. Just amazing. Last Dr. H had to clean up some dude’s nasty toe. It was gross. Infected and stuff. We didn’t leave the operating room until like 830, and we had been there since 7:30 that morning. I don’t think I’ve ever stood still for so long in my life. It was so fascinating. Dr. H told me I could go home around 6 pm (after the bypass), but I didn’t want to leave until he did, I felt like that wasn’t cool. So I waited, and went to go visit all the patients after his last surgery with him. It was amazing. I seriously seriously loved it all.
I didn’t go back to the hospital until Wednesday, which is when I learned about our research I was going to be doing. Data collection. Super boring, and a LOT TO DO, but I will get my name in two papers, so I definitely cant complain. And that’s what I did wed-fri. All day. Everyday.
That Monday (the 23rd) I got to meet one of Dr. H’s new partners, Dr. M. Dr.M is straight out of her fellowship and is a FEMALE surgeon. Dr. H said he hired her just so I would have someone to look up to J I love talking to female surgeons! And she’s only like 32 so she’s a lot easier to relate to then the 50 some odd year old surgeons in Dr. H’s practice!
 This Monday I go to see two Abdominal Aorta Aneurism endovascular repairs. Which are legit like playing video games. So cool. And then another carotid endarterectomy, another abdominal aortal bifermoral bypass, and a new one in a femoral-anterial tibeal bypass. Which was super cool too. But the big news this Monday was that I met another one of Dr. H’s partners, Dr. K, and he asked me to write an abstract and present it on his new method to a procedure, of which he is the only surgeon in the country to do! I’m super excited! I then got to see him perform that surgery (Cryovein for DRIL), and then an above the knee amputation. Super cool. Its always interesting to see the differences between surgeons. I’ve now gotten to see Dr. H, Dr. M, and Dr. K perform surgeries, although I haven’t seen Dr. M do one by herself yet, since she’s new. It was a LONG day though, I didn’t get home until like 11 pm. But it was an amazing day. That’s for sure.
Tuesday I went back in to do some research, par norm. And got to see a basilic AV fistula and a below the knee amputation with Dr. K, all before I ran to dinner with my mom at a fancy restaurant. And I forgot to take off my scrub cap. Embarassing.
And then there was work. I had all of two tables, made like 50 bucks, ate some dinner, and got SUPER sick. Of which I am still sick.
Thankfully I got a computer from the doctors, so I can do my research from home, since I am still sick. They said somethings been going around the office, and it takes 3-6 days to clear up. Kill me now! It’s miserable. So hopefully y’all realize how busy I am. On top of all this I’m still waitressing, taking classes, etc. Its tough! Comment with any questions!

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