This month I’ve been on my surgery rotation in beautiful
Banner Elk, NC. This is THE coveted surgery rotation of my program, and I have
been anxiously awaiting it since clinical year started.
The PA students get to be first assist in the operating
room. Aka: It’s me right across from the surgeon doing the actual procedure and
the two surgical tech nurses there to rescue me from doing something stupid or
take over to assist when things get crazy. Just this week I have had my hands
full of yards of live human intestines, held a gallbladder, navigated an abdomen with a
laparoscopic camera, drained an abscess the size of my fist in a location I
won’t describe, done a partial mastectomy (removal of breast tissue), gotten to close (or suture) many of the wounds, and many
other things.
A typical day starts around 6:30AM when I go see all the
patients who have been admitted to the hospital who are recovering from their
surgery, then I go to the operating room and get the first patient ready with
the nurses, surgery starts at 8, after the surgery I follow the patient to the
recovery room where they wake up from anesthesia and are either stabilized to
go home or get admitted, and then repeat with the next case. After all the
surgeries are done, we go to the clinic and see people who might need surgery
(consults) or see people a few weeks after they had surgeries (follow ups).
Then after that I go round on all the admitted patients again and then I go
home around 6PM. And then I’m on call, which I’ve been called in twice this
week after hours, but luckily I haven’t had to work past midnight any night.
This has been a good rotation too, because I’m learning
about how to manage patients who are in the hospital. I think in bigger
hospitals the surgeon just literally operates and then hands off the patients
to a ‘hospitalist’ who then manages them as an inpatient (somebody who has to
stay in the hospital over night). When do they need IV fluid? What kind? How
much? Do they need antibiotics? When is it appropriate to order x-rays or CT
scans? What do you do with that information? How does a patient’s care change
based on their age? What do I do with all these labs? What are all these
instruments!? Learning SO MUCH!
I am loving every second of this. As my friend Brittany, who
is a general surgery PA, says, “I love seeing people’s insides!” It really is
fascinating. Surgery is so task oriented and satisfying. When something is
wrong, we operate and fix it (for the most part). The day also flies by. The
operating room is like a time vortex. You start a surgery and next thing you know
you’re with the patient in the recovery room and 3 hours had gone by when it
felt like 20 minutes. I have always known I would absolutely love this rotation
and have been waiting for it since clinical year started. And how glamorous
and, as my professors say, ‘sexy’ is it to say you work in surgery?
I would LOVE to work
in surgery after school is over, however these hours are atrocious. No matter
how much I love my job, I will love being at home with Seth more. His next few years might be crazy though as
he pursues graduate school himself and works so maybe I should do surgery for
awhile? Who knows. I want to love my job. That’s kind of been the point of
going through all this schooling, so I can do what I love. But on the other
hand, I am not defined by my career. It will be interesting come July/August
when I start applying to jobs and see what opportunities come about and
decisions to be made. Until then, I am enjoying myself, feel so lucky to be
here, and just trying to make it through one last month of this away rotation
marathon.
