Life Is Something Like That

Today, I scrubbed in to the operating theatre. Just for experience. The patient was a case of right inguinal hernia, apparently irreducible, so there's a large swelling extending into his scrotal region. I was a bit slow when I scrubbed (first time), so when I entered the room, the surgeons had already cut open the skin to the hernial sac. They were handling a pile of yellowish and reddish 'stuff'. Frankly, I don't know what they were. I guessed the yellow globular part would be the fat and the reddish parts were the layers of fascia and muscles.

Anyway, there were two surgeons, and they were very nice. According to one of them, the case was a bit complicated, as there were many adhesions, and I saw them sorting out the layers, trying to reduce and find the point for suturing. Well, I couldn't really describe what happened, as I myself was not quite sure what was happening. But roughly, I think, after reaching the sac, they reduced the contents, then excised the sac and sutured the neck, followed by the addition of a mesh to strengthen the wall.

It was quite an experience, especially for a medical student. I was able to 'assist' a little, mainly helping to maintain the surgeons's visual field, though I was a bit 'slow' at times. Haha. The worse part was when the surgeon asked me what he was doing or what the structure was, I couldn't really answer. Well, some of the answers, I already knew (I've just read on it). But at the verge of the questions, I went totally blank. Haiz.

Anyway, it was a good experience. At least I was able to have a closer look, with my own eyes, at the procedure. When I read back on the topic, the visualizations, the images in my mind will come useful to help clear some doubts and improve my understanding. Nice.

On another note, I noticed that the surgeons had been standing whole day long, and they hadn't eaten at all, as far as I know. It's quite incredible. After a surgery, they would then proceed with the next one, till the list for the day finished.

We went to the ward as usual, at 7.30pm, for our on-call session. After a brief survey of the ward and the surroundings (since we just had a change to this ward, we're quite new there), we begin to cover the cases. There was only one new admission. We clerked a little, and looked at the progress of the patients in their respective patient folders.

Then, I heard the house officer phoned someone, saying something about the oxygen saturation of a patient falling. After that, two other doctors came (I presume one of them was the one who received the call), and following a brief assessment of the aforementioned patient, they were soon starting to provide respiratory support for the patient. We went over and we saw a patient who seemed to be unconscious. He was so thin, his bones and ribs could be seen quite clearly, with deep depressions in between. There was prominent muscle wasting.

Ah, it's the end of pediatrics posting. Another 6 weeks gone by. Frankly, I think there's a lot to be learnt, but there's not enough time. By the way, the MCQ questions were difficult. I mean, it's unlike what we learned; nobody taught us about the questions that they put up. Seriously, I think they should at least set a standard textbook for us. Some acknowledged this book, some disapproved of it, it's rather confusing. And we're practically just entering the foundation period. Like, beginners. We didn't have real exposure before. So, they should try to make it standardized and simple, at least for this period. Once our foundation is set, then they can expect us to explore further. The questions that they ask us should be based on those textbooks, plus some practical skills we learnt from being in the ward. Or maybe I wasn't good enough. I don't know. Now, even though it's over already, I still think I have much to learn. It's quite difficult to accomplish it within this time-frame. Well, I guess I'll just have to improve myself at a later time.

Oh, and my laptop got somewhat buggy for the past week. I'm not sure if it's because of hardware faults or there is something wrong with my graphics card driver. Yeah, well, I thought I wasn't going be able to enjoy my laptop for this few days of 'end-posting holiday', but after some tinkering, I was able to get it back! Haha. I don't know if it's repaired for good, or just temporary, though. It'll suck not to be able to use my laptop this few days, not to mention I have a CFCS project to work-on. But luckily, for the meantime, it's still working. Well, I guess the lesson is, don't take your laptop for granted. I don't know if I can last long without a laptop. Haha.