This post has been a long time in the making; many moments of “I should write about this” and “I will make sure to blog this weekend” yet I never seemed to get it done. Finally I am forcing myself to sit down and catch up what has happened over the past few months, giving a short overview of my first couple rotations.
In July I started off with my Surgery rotation, which is 8 weeks of time spent in the operating room with several different types of specialties. My first 4 weeks were with the Acute Care/Trauma Team consisting of a team of physicians who deal with some of the worst injuries imaginable every day. They are constantly confronted with dealing with unexpected situations and determining the unknown. I highly respect these doctors and respect that this is one profession that I could not do for the rest of my career. To me the operating room is a fascinating place where I was privileged to spend two months.
On the second half of my rotation I was able to work with various subspecialties including the cardiothoracic surgeons. There are the individuals who are responsible for cracking open a person’s chest, exposing the patients beating heart and repairing the damages. I wish I could explain in words the marvel and magnificence of seeing a beating heart then watching as it is slowly stopped, cooled, drained of all its blood, repaired, the re-warmed as the blood return and finally watching as the final shock brings the patient’s heart beat back to life. To me this is remarkable and I still am astounded by the advancements of modern medicine.
Another aspect of surgery that blew me away was watching a skilled surgeon operate on the tiniest of people, babies only a few days old. At times the parents saddened me but overtime I was more overwhelmed with how much the children were cared for whether by their parents, nurses, doctors, or anyone coming into contact with them. In one surgery I watched the oxygen saturation of a 4-month-old child drop to 18% (it is suppose to be close to 100%) while the anesthesiologist was trying to intubate her for a surgery. Inside I was panicking along with everyone else in the operating room, however, if you would have walked in at that moment you never would have know, the team kept their composure and did what they had to do to obtain the airway, the room was calm (actually more calm than usual) because everyone realized that freaking out and making a scene would only make the situation worse.
More to come about my second rotation; Internal Medicine…Meg
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