I wanna be a surgeon when I grow up, Part 4
One of the cool things about the laparascopic cholecystectomy was that it was, in fact, done all laparascopically. The first laparascopic surgery ended up resulting in complications and so they actually had to open up the pt. The entirety of this operation was only viewable on the monitors.
The pt was this 80-something year old woman, who due to her age and frail body had to be monitored every second in case she coded as they were anesthetizing her. From what I gathered, she seemed to respond very well to the anesthesia. Her blood pressure would drop once in a while, but the anesthesiologist would simply infuse some epinephrine to bump up her BP and reduce her heart rate.
So they pretty much did the same thing as before: made small incisions where the laparascopic tools would be inserted, they inflated the belly and went to town.
The cool thing about this operation is that as soon as the area that was to be removed was cut, they made an incision around the navel and removed it and then inserted a bag into the body cavity through the hole where the navel was. They then proceeded to bag up the removed cysts and pulled it out through the hole! It was the coolest thing! At first, we were like, "how the hell are they going to remove that thing?" Then were like "How are they going to get the bag out?!". I guess you just pull it out!
Unfortunately, I don't remember much anymore. I remember how Dr Chun took us aside and asked if we had any questions. I asked him what he suggested we continue doing if we wanted to pursue general surgery. He was pretty indifferent about the matter given that most medical students end up changing their mind about what specialty they wanted to go into in the first place.
So, a day in the life of a general surgeon was pretty spectacular. It really sparked more of an interest in the field for me. So far, out of shadowing an ER doc, a neurologist, and the general surgeon, general surgery has seemed the most interesting and the area that I feel I would fit in perfectly. I will be shadowing a primary care physician soon. UW seems to be a big proponent of primary care, so we'll see how that goes.
For now, I wanna be a surgeon when I grow up :-P
The pt was this 80-something year old woman, who due to her age and frail body had to be monitored every second in case she coded as they were anesthetizing her. From what I gathered, she seemed to respond very well to the anesthesia. Her blood pressure would drop once in a while, but the anesthesiologist would simply infuse some epinephrine to bump up her BP and reduce her heart rate.
So they pretty much did the same thing as before: made small incisions where the laparascopic tools would be inserted, they inflated the belly and went to town.
The cool thing about this operation is that as soon as the area that was to be removed was cut, they made an incision around the navel and removed it and then inserted a bag into the body cavity through the hole where the navel was. They then proceeded to bag up the removed cysts and pulled it out through the hole! It was the coolest thing! At first, we were like, "how the hell are they going to remove that thing?" Then were like "How are they going to get the bag out?!". I guess you just pull it out!
Unfortunately, I don't remember much anymore. I remember how Dr Chun took us aside and asked if we had any questions. I asked him what he suggested we continue doing if we wanted to pursue general surgery. He was pretty indifferent about the matter given that most medical students end up changing their mind about what specialty they wanted to go into in the first place.
So, a day in the life of a general surgeon was pretty spectacular. It really sparked more of an interest in the field for me. So far, out of shadowing an ER doc, a neurologist, and the general surgeon, general surgery has seemed the most interesting and the area that I feel I would fit in perfectly. I will be shadowing a primary care physician soon. UW seems to be a big proponent of primary care, so we'll see how that goes.
For now, I wanna be a surgeon when I grow up :-P