Me. It's all about me here.

My photo
NY, United States
My name is Daren. I currently attend LECOM in Bradenton, FL. This is currently my 4th year of med school. I created this blog to post my thoughts about medical school. And because I rock. Boom. So please, come make yourself at home and enjoy my musings. If you are easily offended by things (ie sarcasm, being politically incorrect, etc) then I suggest you evacuate the immediate vicinity :)

Monday, September 2, 2013

On Surgery (and other things)

Greetings one and all! So I am in a little town in BF-nowhere, NC aka Morganton NC. Actually, I'm residing near Valdese NC and working in Morganton. Valdese is a tiny little village that I completely missed the first time I drove through because I thought the downtown was just a neighborhood. The population is something like 1400. Pretty dinky. I don't mind that except there is literally NOTHING to do out here. Everything is closed on Sundays for some reason. Places have very odd hours of operation. I went to Hickory, which is a tiny town about 20 min away and honestly, the place looks so run down that I wouldn't be surprised if it became a ghost town within the next 10 years. A lovely place to spend my birthday, which was Aug 29 for all those who care. And btw, thanks to all who wished me  a happy birthday! It was pretty nice actually. And coming back to all the messages and wall posts really brightened my day.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about surgery. My surgery experiences took place up in Buffalo NY at Sisters Hospital. It was a lot of fun. LECOM requires 8 weeks of it but since the last rotation block is cut 1 week short, I only had 7 weeks. My first 2 weeks was general surgery at St. Joseph's, which is right near Sisters. They're all affiliated. It was pretty interesting. An eye opening experience for sure. You go in around 7am and round on some patients prior to doing the surgeries. They let you scrub in on basically any surgery you want, as long as you keep busy. I mostly did lap choles, open abd surgeries, some abscess drainages, and bowel resections. They let me do some suturing but I didn't get to cut stuff. Boo. My next 2 weeks were vascular surgery at Sisters. That was pretty awesome. I assisted with carotid endarterectomies, fem-pop bypasses, varicose vein removals, AAAs, etc. There are a few vascular surgeons and they are all great teachers. Very willing to explain things and if you ask to do stuff, they are more than happy to let you do things. That was a good 2 weeks for me. I then did a week with a plastic surgeon at Sisters. Mostly breast cancer patients who needed breast reconstructions. He also had outpatient surgeries such as cyst removals, nipple tattooing, and other minor surgeries. He is one of the best plastic surgeons in the area and a great teacher as well. My last 2 weeks were with a cardiothoracic surgeon and that was probably the best time of 3rd year I've ever had. He basically let me do half of the surgeries we performed, as in let me cut stuff, suture things, close, place chest tubes, pericardial windows, etc. That was amazing. 

My ambition upon entering med school was to be either a neurosurgeon or a cardiothoracic surgeon. However, I think my personality fits IM better. I also could never do 5 years of general surgery. Absolutely not my thing.

I'll comment on the surgery shelf too. It's an IM exam. You have to know a lot of pre-op and post-op stuff, which in real life, IM docs manage those a lot. I would do UWorld questions, abdominal IM questions, and know pre/post op management and complications really well. Especially post-op fever.

So yeah, I'm currently doing IM in this tiny little town so I'll probably have a bit more time to update this in the near future. Can't wait to go back home. Happy labor day! Celebrate work by playing all day! :)