Golden Weekend

"No one ever tells you that you are doing a good job. But everyone yells the moment you mess up. It's a thankless job. Welcome to surgery."

While we were operating on Friday, the surgeon made this statement as I drove the camera during a laparoscopic hernia repair. His statement is true on many levels.

In the OR, you move when told to move, or you stand and watch. It's almost paralyzing when you are called on to do something. Time stops, as everyone waits for you to complete your task. You pay close attention to detail to make sure you do your task right- be it cutting suture (no matter what you do it's either too short or too long), suturing (it's always a struggle to approximate everything properly and you move too slow), driving the camera during laparscopic cases (following and keeping the horizon straight takes some experience), or retracting tissues (you never quite know how much tension to apply).

Whatever the task maybe, you always find yourself fixated on the smallest details. It's perhaps this close attention to detail, which makes surgeries successful and makes surgeons perfectionists.
***
Friday was my last day on the general surgery service. I move from the world of hernias, appendectomies, cholecystectomies, fistula repairs and gastric bypass procedures to an entirely different world- pediatric surgery.

I've had my first preview of pediatric surgery over these last two weeks, while I took care of a patient with midgut malrotation. I was the first to meet this family in surgery clinic and review here films. While in the hospital, I have been their point person. In working with the family and patient through her admission and surgery, I was felt lucky to work directly with my her and her family. In getting to know her story and in interacting with the family, I was able to learn far more than any pediatric surgery book could teach about such anomalies. It's such longitudinal experiences which make this rotation so memorable.

Before venturing forth to my next surgical rotation, my chief resident graciously gave me this weekend off. I have to stay this is true golden weekend. I am lucky to be spending time with my family and friends during the last day of Ramadan (the month of fasting) and Eid (the holiday marking the end of Ramadan). I am looking forward to eating my mother's home-cooked meals (actually anything other than crackers), catching up with my friends, having normal people conversations that do not conist of asking about bowel habits, sleeping, studying and exercising.

A perfect balance. I am now officially half-way through my general surgery rotation.