Surgery in two weeks

So I am about to round out my second week on my Surgery Clerskhips.. time to muse and reflect

1. You are up early. Let's define early: Early is.. the time you usually wind down from a late night out..4am... Early is.. you're driving and there's nobody on the road.. 15 min trips can take 10 minutes ... early is .. you're not even really sure it's morning... early as in if you call anybody at this time except your friends at the hospital.. you will be injured... purposely

2. It's not fair to call surgeons stupid jocks who "heal with steal." I have met some smart surgeons , men and women who can just as easily function as internists if they so desired. However... this is not the rule per se.. so let's define surgeon as I have seen

The older you are, the more likely you are to embrace tradition whether it's sitting in certain places and whatnot. Older surgeons have a bad habit of referring to "back when" or how they could have done it "better"... and of course .. they are chauvinistic to say the least. Also, surgeons can be incredibly rude and impatient which is ironic in a way because they are very meticulous in the OR and incredibly intolerant of rudeness or anything you do to detract from listening to their lectures/pimping sessions with rapt attention.

3. The OR - you need to like the OR to like surgery. A lot of my distaste for the OR has to do with the fact that I am not very active in the procedures aside form retracting, cutting sutures and handing things... but I'm also MIA mentally when you hit the 2-3 hr mark, sometimes the 1 hr mark....

So let's highlight some of my own personal ... anecdotes

Week 1 - Alot of retracting and awkwardness. I spent a few minutes on each floor ending up staring at the end of a hallway without a door to the stairs or I'd take the longest route possible to get to where I needed to get going. On my first case, I was asked by my resident to tie a knot using a clamped hemostat... I decided to tie a regular.. run of the mill knot.. not knowing how to tie a two handed surgical knot.. so he showed me quickly and I couldn't do it.. this lasted for a good 5-10mins....

Week 2 - More early mornings. I learned that your hold scissors with your fourth finger, I was called out for holding them like a grandmother. There's more stories.. but I'm drawing a blank and I don't want to get too descriptive.

Now - it's 1020 something and I'm sitting in my student lounge. I was rounding till 8ish... and informed my weekend intern of my pager number. Then I napped/caught another hour of sleep --> breakfast --> do some boards questions... I imagine Saturday will be like Sunday... not a whole lot during the day.. then picks up at night with trauma calls and whatnot....