On Saturday, I will conclude my time on General Surgery. Most of you who read this know that some might qualify me as somewhat of a “worrier.” I find ways to worry about the past, present, and future while I’m both awake and sleeping. Sometimes it feels like my world revolves about worrying–what am I currently worried about, what did I just finish worrying about, and should I be worried that I’m not worried about something I should be worried about. That being said, it’s no surprise that I started worrying about rotating through Gen Surg approximately 8 months before I was even accepted into medical school. I imagined that in the O.R., the surgeons basically turned into Hannibel Lecter and ate the tissue samples instead of submitting the specimens to pathology. Makes life easy for pathologists but hell for medical students.

Well, like many of my worries, the energy I had spent fretting about how terrible the O.R. turned out to be fruitless and unnecessary. It turns out that 9/10 surgeons were actually friendly, courteous, and enjoyable to work with. They really enjoy teaching, and they love what they do. 

The other important learning point in this experience is that I’ve regained the confidence I thought I had lost. My incredibly difficult situation with my preceptor last year made me wonder if I was tough enough for medicine. Before my preceptor, I had always thought of myself as the strong, confident woman my mom and dad had raised me to be. Straight teeth, good education, and confidence–the only things a woman needs to be successful according to MrBruAl. Being nearly crippled by my preceptor had caused me to loose 2 of those 3 key tools (and according to Ryan, he was about to take out the straight teeth of my preceptor–so there!). Well good news…I’m back. My resident and attending set up a comfortable, relaxed situation for me and I took it and ran with it, and I’ll never look back. I know I’m smart. I know I truly care for my patients. And I know I can run with the best of ‘em.

To Do List: Worry about Neurosurgery

I know this is a long post, but I have two more things to say:

#1 – In response to Ginger’s comment about my spindly fingers: the correct medical terminology is arachnodactyly. It’s commonly seen in people with Marfan’s syndrome (think Abe Lincoln). Luckily, I don’t have fingers–spindly or otherwise.

#2 – Sometimes I try to get a laugh out of Ryan by filling in the following blank:  Today at my work, I saw/did ______ , what did you do at work today?  Well, today I filled in the blank with “saw a 3 inch worm that had been coughed up by a 15 y/o”  Aren’t you glad you didn’t marry a doctor almost???