Rotation 1: Surgery

I started off third year with Surgery. It wasn't my original choice, but I convinced myself that it would be a good idea to get a hard rotation out of the way early on. I knew there wasn't a huge chance I would choose surgery as a career so it would function as way to get familiarized with the hospital and be comfortable seeing patients, charting, and just figuring out what 3rd year is like.

Ready with my clogs and pager. Please page me! (Please don't.)

I had one month of cardiothoracic surgery and one month of general surgery. I ended up liking the rotation a lot, especially general surgery. CT had some really cool surgeries, but I felt like I grasped general surgery much better. CT was especially challenging with regards to management as most of the patients are in the ICU. Although I did get to see open heart surgeries, LVAD placements (don't cut the LVAD wire! (loyal Grey's Anatomy fan reference there), lung removals, and esophagectomies (yep, pretty much get rid of the esophagus due to the cancer eroding it. I got to hold the stomach up while it got stapled). General had more "bread-and-butter" cases that I thought were more within my scope - bunch of hernia repairs and gallbladder removals; I also scrubbed in on plenty of colorectal cases which are so complicated! I got to do plenty in the OR too: suturing, being in charge of the camera during laparoscopic procedures, putting in Foleys, retracting, etc!

"Practicing."

The hours sure are long, but the days go by so quickly. The one really hard thing is carving out time to study. There just isn't enough time after you come home and eat because you have to be in bed soon after that in order to wake up at 4am! I did okay on the shelf exam, but not great, so I will be adjusting some study strategies for my next rotation.

End of rotation assessment:
I didn't expect to like surgery as much as I did. However, I found that I enjoyed reading up about patients' conditions and their management much more than being in the OR. I also think the structure of the rotation prepared me well for the rest of the year. It was definitely cool for 8 weeks, but I find myself more intrigued by the medicine than the procedure. Good effort though, Surgery!

Fam came up after my shelf and we went to Tahoe for the weekend!