Outpatient surgery

Six weeks of waking up at 4:15 AM six days a week, albeit learning a ton about the field of surgery and management of patients, and it's now six weeks of sampling.

Outpatient is all about getting exposure to as many surgical subspecialties in one week increments. This is both awesome because 1) weekends are free, and 2) outpatient (well, predominantly outpatient) surgery services tend to operate at more reasonable hours (no earlier than 6 or 630 start times), while less awesome in that your participation is less essential (you can't really contribute a lot when you get only one week on a service). But this is fine because it gives time to attend to other things in your life. Like writing on some blog.

Third year keeps moving along: so much shit to learn, so many more experiences to be had, so much so much. So much to constantly both pick up, question, and actively and passively absorb. It's a learner's playground. The only challenge is staying constantly vigilant, enthusiastic, and inquisitive. Sometimes this is more easily said than done.

An intern on a previous rotation summed it up best, speaking to me after I'd made a small error in patient management: "It's OK, we picked it up. No harm done, no need to apologize. We do this and learn for our patients' sake. Patients first."

Indeed.

S@&! just got real, part 3

Had to break some bad news to a patient today. Not fun, obviously. But it's what I signed up for.