2 weeks down.....10 to go!

Tomorrow starts week #3 of surgery, and my last week of Surg I. I should explain a little on how this surgery rotation is set up. In 12 weeks we do the following:
3 weeks of Surgery I: comprised of general, vascular, plastics
3 weeks of Surgery II: comprised of general, rectal, breast, Head and neck
1 week each of: Orthopedics, Anesthesia, Specialty clinic, Urology
2 weeks of Surgical ICU

After this week I move into Surgery II. Of course Surgery I and II have the most time committment since we have to be at the hospital at 6am. To do that I have to get up at 4am so I can make my 5:05am Q train to Coney Island. If we are not on call, we are able to leave after lecture at 5pm, and then I usually get home around 6-6:30pm, where I have dinner, check some email and then get into bed by 8pm to rinse, lather and repeat again!!

Of course, a call day means a 36 hours stay in the hospital. For instance, I have call Wednesday night which means I go in at 6am on Wednesday and I get out of the hospital on Thursday at 5pm!! Very, very long night and day. Its actually not all that bad if you are able to sleep a little, but even then the night of post call, you just crawl into bed at 6pm and go to sleep :)

So how is surgery going so far?? Its okay....I have found that there are good days and bad days and it really all depends on who you are working with that particular day. If you have a great attending/resident, your day is awesome in that you are able to learn so much. If you have an attending/resident that just doesn't seem to care about you/doesn't want to teach you anything, then its a pretty shitty day. I will say this....the residents work hard and are on call every 3rd night. I don't know how they do it and quite honestly, that schedule alone turns me off from being a surgeon. I love medicine and it will be a big part of who I am....but, there is also so much more to me than that and I have so many other things that I love and want to do.

So, for the next 10 weeks I will learn as much as I can about surgery. Because I know that after August 14th, I will probably never be in an operating room again. I hope everyone has a great night. Take care!