Week 5

So I'm back on a regular surgery team meaning... back to the OR... dern

This week is little strange, we have less patients per resident so I have to be rounding by 520-530a.. just to get three in before a resident follows up in front of me.

So let's segue quickly into fasting while on Surgery, it's tough. I'm reporting in before fasting even begins, but I've bypasses that obstacle by packing protein shakes and caffeine. What gets brutal is standing around the OR when you start to get sleepy... and you can't caffeinate up, caffeine is key to surgery, you need several boli throughout the day.. usually before lectures...

Other than that, more of the same. Trying to avoid the OR but ending up being in on one or two cases a day.. which by my luck has ended up begin 2-4 hrs... ehhhh I've learned to love clinic duty which surgeon-types don't usually like..


I've been in on lumpectomies/biopsies.. which means I'm holding a breast for extended periods of time. This is alot less ..provocative as it might sounds...

So my team has two interns who are two of the coolest people I know. One is cool... she actually reads my notes and asks me why i make certain recommendations.. the other is a really cool dude from Texas who always gives you little thumbs ups when you show up in the OR, just a really nice guy to work with. One day I tried to get all of us to put our hands in the middle and say "Team C" on the elevator.. i didn't catch...

Night Call
So this week was my 7th night call out of 8. ( As my surgery peers repeatedly tell me, I could've avoided 8 calls if I didn't so eagerly volunteer for Sept 5.. the Friday of labor day weekend.. oh well)... So let's review night call

First thing, is page or tell the intern/2nd year that you are the student to page
Second, the waiting game: you wait for that first page from the intern or the trauma code
once you're paged...you're usually out and about for a bit.. sometimes it'll be a one hit wonder and others that could be the last time you're in our student lounge. I remember one saturday where I was paged at 430p and didn't go back to the lounge till 4 or something ridiculous.
Trauma Codes/ Consults: ATVs are dangerous but probably won't kill you or compromise your vitals.. meaning i see more of these on consults.. but man.. some wicked lacerations and stuff. Motorcycles are dangerous but more on the code end...


Oh and I've learned that some nurses eat up the surgery look. One of my residents who is married totally had three nurses just swarming around him.. which turned out to be awesome for me when this hot one started talking to me.. too bad i was too nervous and replied in one word answers....

...well that's it for now


let's see what next week has to offer