I'm a surgeon now, you guys!!!
My spay was on Wednesday. My surgery partner and I were so stoked, but I was slightly worried that my history of getting faint while watching surgeries would rear its ugly head. So I asked for a stool to be nearby in case I needed it, but I didn't! I was totally fine! Not only that, but I had a blast. I do wish it had been cooler in the OR, because I was sweating bullets in my gown.
Our patient did wonderfully. Almost no bleeding, woke up fine from anesthesia, didn't seem even remotely painful the next day as she was jumping around like a big goofball. Which is surprising, considering that we are first time surgeons and our technique was far from flawless. She was released at noon the next day, wagging her tail and super excited to see her owner. As long as I don't get a call before her 10 day recheck that her incision site has dehisced, I'm calling this a win!
I also started my emergency rotation on Monday. Up until that point, groups that went before ours had said, "Oh, don't worry. There's not a lot going on and no one gets called in when they're on call." They cursed us. We've had three hit-by-cars since Monday, one of which was euthanized and another belonged to a classmate of mine (thankfully, that dog got off very, very lucky with only bruising and some road rash). I was called in, and four other students were called in during their on-call shifts.
My last few days have gone something like this...
Wednesday: Performed my spay. Stayed until about 6pm doing paperwork. Went to dinner to celebrate with a friend. Got home and tried to sleep before going in to do a recheck on my patient at midnight. Got back home at 1am. Went to sleep until my alarm went off at 6:30am to go to class.
Thursday: Class, emergency rounds, home to lay in bed and try to fall asleep fruitlessly before my midnight-7:30am shift. Go in at midnight, work until time to go to class at 8am.
Friday: Go to class, go to bovine rectal palpation lab, attend emergency rounds, pick up on-call phone and go home. Fall asleep at 9pm. Get called at 12:30am for an emergency HBC. Get home at 3am. Sleep four hours, wake up at 7am for my ICU shift at 8:00am.
Saturday: Work 8am-4pm.
Sooo, yeah. I'm going to pass out for several hours.
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThat's so exciting! Now that you're doing mostly rounds and not a lot of time in lectures (correct me if I'm wrong), how much do you study when you're actually at home? What do emergency rounds usually consist of? I know I'm being totally nosy, but it's because I'm living vicariously through you!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we still have 3-4 hours of lecture each day. :( Seventh semester is known as the semester where you just don't study. You don't have time and when do you find an hour or two, you're too exhausted to do anything. Luckily everyone still passes, anyway (unless they fail a rotation).
DeleteEmergency rotation is a week long, and depending on how large your group is, you're going to work a shift pretty much every day. Shifts are 5pm-midnight and midnight-7:30am. There's also an on-call shift of 5pm-7:30am. Each shift has to have two people on it. You're basically in charge of monitoring fluids, TPR, and administering any fluids for patients in the ICU overnight.
Whoops, sorry. Rounds are done at 4:30 each day of the rotation. You go over any mistakes made by the previous shifts, discuss what could have been done differently, go over cases, or they present you with scenarios or a topic to discuss.
DeleteCool! What kind of cases are usually presented in non-emergency rounds? Are there ever any big mistakes that require a lot of fixing?
DeleteNot sure what you mean by non-emergency rounds. I've only had rounds during my emergency rotation.
DeleteThe cases are theoretical during rounds. One of ours was, "A client comes into your clinic at 5 minutes before you close, very upset and visibly shaken. The family dog badly bit his toddler daughter on the face and he wants it euthanized immediately. What do you do?"
As far as actual cases during your emergency rotation, yes, as in any clinical environment. accidents happen. Students screw up (or doctors/technicians in the hospital). Big mistakes do happen. We were told of one involving a hydromorphone overdose by students on emergency rotation in the semester before us. It can result in failing the rotation and repeating 7th semester.
Oh, I wasn't sure what rounds consisted of, in all honesty. Thanks so much for your answers!
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