Day in the Life: Adult Neurosurgery

Braiiinnnnnnnsssss.

Sorry, couldn’t resist!

What does a vegetarian zombie eat?

Grainnnnnnnnnnnssss.

Okay, I’ll stop. You’ll have to excuse my sleep-deprived self.

I’m actually splitting this rotation into 2 “day in the life’s” because I spent 3 weeks on the adult service rotating between Team A, B, and C, and my last week in pediatric neurosurgery!

Day in the Life: Adult Neurosurgery

awake craniotomy

A Typical Day

I completed this rotation for interest vs. as a sub-internship. What would possess me to do a month of neurosurgery for fun, you ask?

  1. My friend connected me with one of her former preceptors, who (small world!) used to volunteer at the same clinic I volunteered at! (Paul Hom Asian Clinic, represent!)
  2. Getting to live at home (aka save on cost of living), and theoretically spend time with my family + friends.
  3. Escaping the snowpcalypse!

I think everyone on the service thought I was crazy for willingly choosing to do a neurosurgery rotation, especially after they found out that I was not in fact trying to get into their program. (“…But why?” was the most frequent follow-up question. Apparently, no student has ever done this.)

I understand their disbelief, and am thoroughly convinced that neurosurgeons never sleep. That being said, this was the first hospital I’d been at where there was a surgery residency, so I can’t speak for other programs, but the ones I worked with were remarkably pleasant and well-adjusted, especially considering how little sleep they got.

FF on Neurosurgery

Earning my street cred!

I’d wake up at 4:30 and scoot out the door by ~4:45 a.m. On Fridays, I’d leave the house by 4:15. We rounded at 6 every morning, and I’d finish my day there anywhere from 3-9 p.m.

Not a fan of my hours? Those were actually already drastically reduced! If I’d been on a sub-I, I would’ve likely gone in at 3 a.m. to pre-round on all the ICU patients. My preceptor told me he spent 160 hours/week at the hospital when he was doing his sub-I here. Yes, per week. (For reference, there are only 168 hours in a week.)

How do they do it? I’ll never know.

Depending on which team I was on, I’d either jump in on OR cases or work with whoever was on call to see patients and consults! I got to see a lot of extremely rare and unique pathology that I never thought I’d ever encounter.

Highlights in the OR included getting to help screwdriver someone’s skull back together, helping with a brain biopsy and tumor removals, and watching an awake craniotomy, aka where the patient was woken up during the surgery and asked to follow commands (e.g. reading from a magazine, wiggling his toes, answering questions, doing math problems).

I also got to work with my friend’s former preceptor for a day in clinic! (This was the same morning that I tripped and fell down the stairs, so I was limping around and he was rather concerned.) It was really cool getting to see such a different side of medicine, and he said I made his life a lot easier with the notes that I wrote for him (this is music to any med student’s ears :D ). He actually gave me the go-ahead to embrace senioritis since I wasn’t doing a sub-I, but I didn’t want to be a total slacker, so I tried to find a happy in-between!

ffneurosurg

Meals

The residents and preceptors were super nice and would sometimes offer to and/or buy me breakfast and lunch! I typically brought the day’s worth of meals with me though in an effort to save money!

Parking

…was $4.50/day. A week’s worth of that could potentially feed me for almost a month, so eff that!

I instead parked at a nearby shopping center every morning and walked 0.7-1 mile to get to the hospital. The first day, I wasn’t entirely sure of where I was going, so I followed the construction workers and ended up in the right place, haha.

epipenneurolounge

This was taped onto the wall in the neurosurg lounge. The residents claim that they stab themselves with it at night when they’re on call to keep themselves going. In case it needs to be said, they’re totally joking.

Housing

I got to live at home for the first time since 2011! I lived about 40 minutes from the hospital (without traffic), so I commuted every day. Rush hour is something I am hoping to never have to deal with when I have a job someday. I didn’t really drive until I got to medical school, which was almost in the middle o’ nowhere, so traffic has never been something I had to deal with. ._.

On the plus side, Morgan Freeman has been added as a GPS voice on waze, so listening to him narrate my road conditions has been kinda awesome. My other alternative was sleeping in the car until rush hour was over. I fail at naps though, so what would’ve been 20 minutes turned into 2 hours and my mom thought I’d died on the road. ._.

Check out my other Day In The Life posts!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.fairyburger.com/day-in-the-life-adult-neurosurgery/

18 comments

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  1. I’ve found all you share with us so ao FLIPPING fascinating.
    I never want to be a physician – – but I’m vicariously.
    Carla recently posted…Are we only as sick as our secrets?My Profile

    1. hehe, I will attempt to continue providing stories for you to vicariously live through! :P

  2. I I always love your “Day in the Life” posts- so nostalgic for me. Good ol’ NS, really interesting but I didn’t consider it for even a split second. I’m actually super tired myself (just getting home from a night shift) but your vegetarian zombie joke cracked me up :)
    Sonali- The Foodie Physician recently posted…Dining with the Doc: Coconut Cashew Bliss BallsMy Profile

    1. hehehe, yeah, I think most of them thought I was a little crazy for doing this rotation for fun, but…so many cool cases and getting to live at home was nice! I also kinda wanted to see if I could survive a month, hehehe. :] Hope you got some sleep!!

  3. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is so much work. I can’t even fathom 180 hours. Glad you didn’t sign up for that permanently :-) I always feel like I’m getting behind the scenes/ untold Grey’s Anatomy with these posts :-)
    Julie @ Running in a Skirt recently posted…Spring is in the Air- Weekend Photo DumpMy Profile

    1. I can’t either–I think he basically just lived at the hospital; I don’t know how else he’d have managed that! I’ve once again reaffirmed that family medicine is my calling! ;P

  4. Bahahahahahahaha the Epi pen LOLZ Silly doctors. ;D
    Susie @ SuzLyfe recently posted…Peace OUT, Funemployment! Hello, Anytime Fitness Chicago!My Profile

    1. hehehe, gotta have something to get em’ through the day, right?!

  5. Wow – my mind is seriously blown right now! An “awake craniotomy” – gosh! It’s like Grey’s Anatomy furrealz! :)
    So glad to hear you are living at home!
    Shashi @ RunninSrilankan recently posted…Hello Spring! Hello Nutchello!My Profile

    1. It was so cool to be able to watch that!! :D! I’m really glad to be home too! :]

  6. Neaurosurgery rotation, wow now that’s got to be interesting!
    Seriously though, those hours? Crazy!
    Years back I used to be a Med Assistant in a surgical department and by the end of the week I seriously had no idea how they were even able to keep their eyes open. It made since why they had a free fountain soda coke machine there. They needed the sugar and caffeine at times. Although I was nice one Surgeon hated Coke so I would always run across the street to grab him a Pepsi to hand it to him after each surgery, LOL Of course he thought I was doing it out of the kindness of my own heart. But I did it so I could take the long way and run around the block and get a little exercise on my way there, LOL I miss the days of wearing scrubs, ha ha!
    Good luck with those hours you have, crazy! You say how do they do it, and I still wonder how you do it all!
    Kristy @Runaway Bridal Planner recently posted…It’s The Goal to #BeFitAllYearMy Profile

    1. haha, you were just looking out for the both of you! :P There’s no harm in that! My surgeon used to take me on his walks to the physicians’ lounge for snacks/tea/coffee. :P I love and miss wearing scrubs! :P I hope wherever I end up working has a more relaxed work attire policy! :P

  7. Neurosurgery sounds like the most INSANE specialty ever!! The hours..oh my goodness.
    Jess @hellotofit recently posted…Chocolate Protein Oat Bars {Guest Post}My Profile

    1. haha, the hours are a bit insane, but everyone seemed so well-adjusted!!

  8. Okay even with that schedule I am once again blown away with how you continue to have time to blog and stay fit. I would just fall asleep with pizza slices on my face, one hand in a cup of mountain dew, and ultimately urinate all over myself in my sleep until my alarm went off the next morning. BRA-VO!!!!
    Alex recently posted…Attack of the JellyfishMy Profile

    1. hehehe, I schedule a lot of posts into the future so I won’t have to worry about it! :D I’m unfortunately running low on ready-made posts though, and this broken hand thing isn’t helping. :[

      I’m crossing my fingers that you don’t actually fall asleep with your hand in mountain dew!! :O!!

  9. I’m with Alex – how do you have the time to do anything outside of work other than recover and sleep? You are a superwoman! It was fascinating reading all the details, e.g. “Highlights in the OR included getting to help screwdriver someone’s skull back together, helping with a brain biopsy and tumor removals, and watching an awake craniotomy.” My mind is spinning with the magnitude of what you accomplish on a daily basis. You are really making such a huge difference in the lives of so many patients!!!
    Emily @ Out and About recently posted…Nobody asked me, but…My Profile

    1. Aww, thanks so much for your kind words, Emily! <3 Life definitely gets super crazy and hectic sometimes, and I probably had the least free time ever while I was on my Neurosurgery rotation, but it was an awesome opportunity to learn!

      I'm ultimately going into Family Medicine, and I'm hoping to do outpatient-only, so there remains a small glimmer of hope that I'll have somewhat of a "normal" schedule in the future! Until then, I'll just keep plugging along! :]!

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