Hey Doc, look at this...
On Thursday, I was called "Doctor." The surgeon that I was with introduced me as such to the patients in his office. As in "this is doctor so and so, she's a medical student hanging out in our office today." It made me supremely uncomfortable, because 1) I'm not actually a doctor and 2) My name is Anna. I wasn't sure if I should correct him or not, so I just kinda let it slide, but I cringed a bit every time he said it. Later, I went to see a gallbladder removal (laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the technical term) with one of the other surgeons. I'm sure he just didn't remember my name, but he kept showing me things on the screen and saying "blah blah blah blah, Doc." At first, I had no idea he was talking to me. Very odd. It was even more uncomfortable than the OB-Gyn I was with the previous days asking me (in front of the patient) what I thought. Here's a clue: I have no freakin' idea.
The laproscopic surgery was one of the coolest things I've seen. Instead of opening up the abdomen in a traditional way (as in, slice it open), there are four small incisions made. Through one of these, a camera is inserted, and through the others the tools needed to preform the surgery are inserted and manipulated. You can see SO much in there and with such detail. The whole time, I kept thinking though, okay, fine, so once they get this gallbladder detached, how the heck are they actually going to get it OUT? Of course, my question was answered at the end of the surgery, when they put it in basically a zip lock bag and pulled it back through one of the small incisions.
On Friday, I was back in the ER, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places, perhaps because it reminds me of my "roots" in medicine, which was the EMT-B training I had in college. In any case, the days always go quickly there. I like that there is always a lot going on; I think I would like the challenge of multitasking, and it CERTAINLY would be nice to have no call, set hours, and pay not dependent on doing procedures, etc (which is how most of medicine works). I like that you never know what is coming next. One thing that continues to surprise me about the ER is actually how CALM they are. I haven't seen a TRUE medical emergency in there yet, so I don't know exactly what that would look like, but in general, they just take their time to evaluate, get the tests, etc. It is interesting to observe how, medically, there are few things that really need to be taken care of RIGHT NOW, but the patients surely seem to think that they do.
The laproscopic surgery was one of the coolest things I've seen. Instead of opening up the abdomen in a traditional way (as in, slice it open), there are four small incisions made. Through one of these, a camera is inserted, and through the others the tools needed to preform the surgery are inserted and manipulated. You can see SO much in there and with such detail. The whole time, I kept thinking though, okay, fine, so once they get this gallbladder detached, how the heck are they actually going to get it OUT? Of course, my question was answered at the end of the surgery, when they put it in basically a zip lock bag and pulled it back through one of the small incisions.
On Friday, I was back in the ER, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places, perhaps because it reminds me of my "roots" in medicine, which was the EMT-B training I had in college. In any case, the days always go quickly there. I like that there is always a lot going on; I think I would like the challenge of multitasking, and it CERTAINLY would be nice to have no call, set hours, and pay not dependent on doing procedures, etc (which is how most of medicine works). I like that you never know what is coming next. One thing that continues to surprise me about the ER is actually how CALM they are. I haven't seen a TRUE medical emergency in there yet, so I don't know exactly what that would look like, but in general, they just take their time to evaluate, get the tests, etc. It is interesting to observe how, medically, there are few things that really need to be taken care of RIGHT NOW, but the patients surely seem to think that they do.