Surgery

Surgery rotation is going well. I have been fortunate enough to have been placed with a "nice surgeon." I have a reading assignment every night that I am pimped on the next day. Fortunately, when the med students and residents are around he pimps them rather than me. While I can't answer some of his questions, neither can the MS3s or the R1 or R2s. I have been able to answer more than the MS3s for the most part and know my way around the ER better. Once they are done with their residencies they will know a lot more in their given specialty than I will I imagine.

The surgeon likes to give out nicknames to the students and residents. My nickname is the feminine version of my first name. A resident has been nicknamed Travesty and an Asian female med student was nicknamed Sushi, but not for long. Often times the male student's sexuality is called into question in a joking kind of way - usually mine. It doesn't bother me because I think that kind of stuff is so jr. high school to begin with. The surgeon likes to tell jokes in the OR and they are sometimes of a sexual or mildly vulgar nature, ss are some of the pimp questions. E.g. after a long session on the muscles and nerves of the neck, to a female med student: "What is the economic significance of the platysmus muscle?" Leave a comment if you have a guess.

Another pimp question with no innuendo attached was "how were American Indians able to kill bison with single arrow riding full speed on horseback?" Again, let me know your guesses. Most of the time in the OR I watch or cut sutures or retract but on very rare occasion to I get to first assist on surgeries, which is a lot more interesting. I helped remove a lung lobe secondary to cancer, and assist on a mastectomy as well as help the plastics guy with the first stage of breast reconstruction. We also removed a malleable retractor from a patient after it had been there 19 years - from a surgery elsewhere.

I have been working pretty hard and I am usually beat after 3 or 4 surgeries in the afternoon. It is a good experience overall, and I don't really have a with my preceptor - I am just surprised he can get away with those kinds of jokes and question given what I have witnessed in other similar situations in the business world. He treats me well and teaches a lot so I am grateful for this rotation. I may have a job lined up as an indirect result of this rotation too!