Sutures
Yesterday afternoon I began my career in surgery.
Being a member of the Surgical Society of the university, I managed to grab a place on the Surgical Skills Afternoon, after lunch in the dissection room. We had a few surgeons/trainees come in to teach us to do sutures and tie a knot. They gave everyone a set of forceps, a needle holder, a pair of surgical scissors and loads of nylon suturing thread along with a chunk of fake skin mounted on foam. The fake skin had been incised (er, cut) in order to give it a realistic feel.
Anyway, so when I first tried to tie a knot, I couldn't understand how to complete it and I panicked. The girl sitting across me, my coursemate, calmly showed me the bit of string to pull in order to complete the knot. For the next 20 minutes or so, I went absolutely bananas with the needle and the fake skin and did like six or seven simple interrupted sutures.
Then one of the dems who teaches us anatomy and clinical skills came around to my end and taught us to do horizontal sutures, the technique of which, annoyingly, I've forgotten. But I do remember that they're used for aversion - bringing skin together to make a little ridge so the gap is completely closed. I pushed him to show us the subcutaneous suture technique that only goes one layer under your skin, because those are the kind I had on my appendectomy incision wound.
Unfortunately though, I had to leave early for a meeting for the Student Associate Scheme thing. What a party pooper. I wish I could've practised more.