Surgery Day

Today was so incredibly fun!!!!

I got into a workshop for OB/GYN & Surgery that took place for four hours this morning. I was excited but it turned out to be even more fun than I had anticipated.

We learned so many cool things.

I learned how to hand-tie knots that would be used to suture things back together. I would consider myself to have decent manual dexterity, but this was really hard. We learned how to do a two-handed square knot and then a one-handed square knot. Eventually I will have to become efficient at doing the one-handed knot since this is helpful when holding an instrument in one hand and still be able to suture things up. In addition, we learned how to tie knots with instruments too! (ie learn how to do isolated stitches and uninterrupted running stitches). You would think that normal ppl like to tie with their hands, but for some odd reason I enjoyed working with the needle and suture material better; it was finer and more detailed.

Next, we learned how to intubate a dummy-person. This was pretty neat too! Honestly, they have to be rough and apply a lot of pressure to establish an airway. I just wonder how many teeth are broken by medical students while learning how to intubate in the OR. I imagine quite a few considering it is so easy to hit the teeth when forcing the tube down the person's throat.

We also learned the steps that go into creating a sterile field, surgical scrubbing of the hands, gowning up, and setting up a mayo-stand. I didn't realize how much care goes into creating a sterile environment for surgery. I suppose that this is a good thing though because I certainly want the greatest of care when I have my surgery! No staphylococcus aureus infections for me please!

Then we learned various OB/GYN procedures as well. We learned: a sutureless vasectomy....as described: "effective, permanent contraception in 10 minutes or less!" Also, I learned how to close an episiotomy, place an intrauterine device (Mirena and copper types), and also a manual vacuum aspiration (MVA).

The MVA was kind of cool. We set up a hand-held vacuum device, and then used a papaya as a model cervix/uterus. Did you know that a papaya resembles a cervix and uterus? I didn't! But it is the same shape and everything! We gradually dilated the "cervix" of the papaya and then placed the vacuum in to suck the guts out of the fruit simulating the actual procedure. It was kind of neat to think that I could actually be doing this one day.

Having this experience makes me wonder if I would actually be interested in surgery. But I guess I can't tell until I actually experience the real thing out on clinical rotations.