Day in the Life: General Surgery

I never thought I’d ever say this, but my General Surgery rotation was a ton of fun! Who woulda thought!? (I was honestly a little depressed on my last day. :[ The ladies at my preceptor’s office threw me a pizza party! :O )

Make no mistake–I’m still gung-ho Family Medicine all the way. Surgery is fun, and I loved that he let me do all sorts of procedures, but it’s not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I just really adored working with my preceptor. :O

I’ll get into that more when I write up my reflections post for this rotation (all other reflections can be found here!), so for now, I’m just gonna say that every day was filled with laughter and jokes, and I looked forward to em’ even though the hours were sometimes super long. :]!

Day In The Life: General Surgery

Feel special, because I very rarely take selfies. >_>

Feel special, because I very rarely take selfies. >_> You get 2 whole locker room selfies today!

A Typical Day

There is no real “typical” routine day in surgery, so I’m just gonna walk you through one of my Tuesdays, because Tuesdays = my preceptor’s surgery day (aka surgeries all day long)!

Didactics at 7-8 a.m. The hospital I’m at has a Family Medicine residency program, so we go to didactics every morning with all the residents. This includes any of the following:

  • Journal Club: Residents and/or students will pick an article on a certain subject/topic and discuss it with us. I did mine on the health benefits of exercise in the elderly. :O
  • Grand Rounds: One of the residents will usually present a patient case that they had, and we go through their clinical presentation together. From there, we discuss what labs and imaging studies we’d order, come up with a differential diagnosis, and at the end, the resident reveals what was done for the patient + what their actual diagnosis was.
  • M&M (Mortality & Morbidity): Peer reviews on mistakes made during the care of patients, so that we can learn from the errors and prevent making these same mistakes in the future.
  • Yale: We’re given journal articles to read + questions to answer at the end of each week, and this is when we discuss the answers!
  • Bread & Butter: We go over some kind of common “every day” case or condition.
  • OMT: We go over osteopathic manipulations and treatments for different conditions!
  • Other: There are sometimes drug rep presentations, or residents/other students will present on special projects/research they’re working on.

8 a.m.-???

After didactics, I walk over to the hospital and meet up with my preceptor in the surgeons’ lounge. (Lately, it’s been super humid in there and it smells like maple syrup, so we escape to the physicians’ lounge whenever we can, also because the latter has food and drinks.)

I change from my outside scrubs to a pair of hospital scrubs, and grab a mask + two dysfunctional shower hats surgical caps (I usually keep my hair in a long ponytail when I’m on my rotations). The first one goes over the ponytail + half my head, and the second one keeps it all in place.

surgeryscrubs

(For the record, I so very much love getting to wear scrubs instead of professional clothing. I haven’t been able to do this since Emergency Medicine + Radiology!)

ORshoecovers

If I’m feeling super fancy, I put on shoe covers too.

After I scrub in (think lots and lots and lots of thorough + meticulous handwashing), I hipbump the door to the operating room (OR) and one of the nurses helps to gown + glove (size 6!) me. For the surgeries where my preceptor’s using the Da Vinci robot, I watch on the screen and ask and/or answer questions, and keep my hands clasped in front of me so I won’t be a total fail (don’t you dare break that sterile field, Farrah! :O ).

My preceptor lets me do a lot, which I really appreciate. I was closing up patients on my first day in the OR (it was gallbladder day), and he left the room on the second patient I was closing up, so I like to take this to mean that he has at least a little faith in me!

I’ve also gotten to intubate, to place and remove Mediports, cauterize vessels, excise tumors, and make the initial incisions before he starts in with the robot! :] He says I have a great eye forĀ excisional debridements and that I do an amazing job on them, so he lets me do em’ all. :O

After each surgery, we’ll go talk to their family to tell them how the surgery went, and to let them know approximately when they’ll be transferred upstairs, and/or when the patient can go home.

If we have any downtime between surgeries, we round on his patients on the surgical floor to see how they’re all doing, and finish up our notes on them. Otherwise, we see em’ after we’re done with all our surgeries for the day…unless it’s really late and we’re tired beyond reason, in which case we sneak out of the hospital to go home to sleep, and see them several hours later.

Somewhere after anywhere between 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., I head home for the day! When I get home, I’ll usually try to review the things we saw/went over/discussed that day that I didn’t know so that I can ask him about them the next day if I still have questions. My preceptor is super nice, so he sends me home if there’s nothing to teach (while he stays til 3 a.m. or some such inhumane hour to finish up on everything he has to do).

Boards are also coming up again (le sigh), so if there’s time, I try to get through my daily Firecracker questions + do practice questions from my QBank.

Once, I got out super early, so I practiced suture ties on my balcony.

My preceptor has my number for if he gets any sort of super interesting/rare/exciting case in the evening or somewhere through the night. I’ve been called in once earlier on a Friday morning to do an excisional debridement of someone’s foot. He’s a diabetic who stepped on a nail and tried to take care of the wound on his own, but it got wildly infected, and what looked like 0.5 cm x 0.5 cm x 1.6 cm wound ended up being a 9.2 x 3.7 x 3.2 cm wound.

Reason #1242104918 as to why prevention of diabetes is a wonderful idea.

(My weekends are nonexistent sometimes, but the hours are a lot shorter then!)

Meals

Every now and then between cases, we’ll get a spare moment to sneak-powerwalk to the physicians’ lounge to grab lunch.

If my preceptor has a meeting, he drops me off in the lounge so I can eat (my badge unfortunately doesn’t give me access to it :x ) before heading off to the meeting. :]

Parking

Free!

Housing

I’m back at my base site, so I’m living in my apartment in Kentucky, and I have my free gym back again! <3

Permanent link to this article: https://www.fairyburger.com/ditl-general-surgery/

35 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. Wow! This is such a cool read! I love hearing what happens behind the scenes at hospitals since it’s such a mystery and so much goes on, so thanks for sharing your experiences :).
    Vicky recently posted…Munich, Germany…The Best Things to See & Do!My Profile

    1. Thanks, Vicky! :] Glad you love reading about it! I will likely have a lottt more throughout this and next year! ;P

  2. You have the most awesome preceptor, like, ever. Period. I loved reading a bit more in depth about this, as Alex’s surgical rotation was really early on, and it was a specialty (ENT) and when his back was at its worst, so it was more about him getting through grueling hours of standing. But oh, the sterile field! HANDS UP DON”T SCRATCH. I definitely asked him what he did if he got itchy, lol. I know I wouldn’t make it very far in surgery because I would get hella hangry. I don’t know how people do the 30 hour ones with MAYBE 1 break.
    Susie @ SuzLyfe recently posted…Stress Reaction Recovery Update and A Serious #likeaSuz Moment!My Profile

    1. Isn’t he the best!?!? <3 <3

      Oh, for serious. And of course, you never itch (or notice that you do) when you can actually reach over to scratch it. But once you can't?! Everything itches. ;_;

      It definitely takes a special sort of human to do that! (Aka not me.)

  3. I love this! It’s so interesting to get a glimpse into your day. I have to agree that scrubs win over real clothes any day.
    Pragati // Simple Medicine recently posted…Is Fruit Sugar Healthy?My Profile

    1. Thanks, Pragati! They’re sosososo comfortable! <3! I get to do a half-half type of deal on this rotation, so...still happy and super comfortable! :]!

  4. Ah,you and your hospital rotationS! You sort of I spire me to write my own dy in the life at work series at chipotle, but there’s no schedule and i always do the same thing from start to finish!
    Linda @ TheFitty recently posted…Life Lately: Currently Edition {#LIPlinkup #23}My Profile

    1. That’d be a fun read! Even if it wasn’t a series, it’d still be really cool to see what behind-the-scenes at Chipotle would be like! :D (Does anyone in the back scarf down guacamole? Because I totally would.)

  5. It’s like real life Grey’s Anatomy :-) Glad you enjoyed this rotation!
    Julie @ Running in a Skirt recently posted…No Equipment Hotel Room WorkoutMy Profile

    1. hahaha, pretty much! ;P It was such a fun one!! :D

  6. I’ve said it time and time again, your days are so interesting! I can’t believe that foot got that bad! That’s crazy sauce. Happy to hear that you enjoyed your time (and did so well!) with general surgery!

    1. It’s frightening how bad injuries can get in diabetics without them realizing it! :[!

      Thanks! I miss that rotation already! It was so darn fun! :] (Thankfully, the one I’m on right now is really cool too–my preceptor’s awesome for this one also!)

  7. Lots to do but sounds like you love it! I started going through all seasons of Scrubs again and it reminds me of Turk and the surgeons.
    Lesley recently posted…Thinking Out Loud 5/7My Profile

    1. Indeed I did! :D! I still have yet to watch Scrubs, but it sounds like I really need to! :O

  8. I love to read about your experiences as a med student, although I just found your blog and have only read a few times. It’s so neat how you manage to work out AT ALL while juggling this schedule but if you make something a priority in life, I guess it happens. It sounds like you have a great preceptor and med school and rotations sound pretty fun even if it is a long day.
    Amy Lauren recently posted…May Day Half Marathon (1:49:50)My Profile

    1. Thanks, Amy! :] I’ve been trying to throw workouts in wherever I have time to do so, but there are some days where I just go home, study for a little bit, plop on my bed and pass out. There are definitely some negative pieces to med school, but I don’t like to complain about it because I’ve been blessed to have such awesome preceptors to learn from! :]!

  9. I loved reading this. How amazing that there are people out there like you who can literally go inside our bodies, fix what’s broken and then see us back together! You’re awesome :)
    Jill recently posted…How Did I Not Know About This, and Other RandomnessMy Profile

    1. Aww, thank you, Jill! I learned from a super amazing physician, so all credit goes to him! :P He did all the fixing, and I did most of the closing, extractions + sewing people up! :]!

  10. This is totally fascinating to me. My cousin is in anesthesiology and I love hearing his stories, too.
    Rachel recently posted…I may or may not blame this post on having the “taper crazies.”My Profile

    1. I’m still so surprised that I ended up liking that rotation so much! (As well as my current one! These two were the ones I’ve actually kinda been dreading all year! :O )

  11. I worked at a daycare center before and had to wear scrubs and they are seriously the most comfortable things to wear!
    Channing recently posted…What Makes Me Happyā€¦.My Profile

    1. It’s like wearing pajamas to work! :D!

  12. Wow you have crazy long days and oh my gosh I can’t imagine having someones body to work on – eeek!! you are so brave and you must have hands of steel!!
    Sam @ PancakeWarriors recently posted…Sundried Tomato Spinach Turkey Meatball RecipeMy Profile

    1. hehehe, I think I’ve gotten completely desensitized! :x The rotation I’m on right now has slightly better hours, but so, so many patients! :O

  13. Oh, I find this all so interesting. I probably secretly wanted to be a doctor, but I didn’t make it past one semester of Biology. ;-)
    Coco (@Got2Run4Me) recently posted…Sauteed Swiss Chard With EggsMy Profile

    1. hahaha, I feel ya! Organic chemistry’s the course that almost did me in!

  14. Farrah, sounds like an awesome job but alot of work. I commend doctors, you guys put in hard work to help us. Thank you!
    Ivanna recently posted…My Journey To Thrive at 35My Profile

    1. Thanks, Ivanna! The hours were definitely long (especially his–he’d tell me to go home when he had nothing left to teach me, but would frequently stay at the hospital past midnight ;_; ), but it was awesome getting to work with him!

  15. really interesting! thanks for sharing your day.
    Jennifer recently posted…Friday Five – Ways to Share the Running LoveMy Profile

    1. Thanks, Jennifer! :D

  16. Surgery seems like an interesting rotation! It was hard while Ray was on it because we never got to see each other, but I think he enjoyed it too. well, besides the long hours ;)
    Jess @hellotofit recently posted…Link Love #17 and party pantsMy Profile

    1. hahaha, yeah, the hours are definitely kinda insane, but I liked that it was a lot of fun! :D

  17. This is soooo cool! I’m a little squeamish so I could never but it’s great that so many people CARE about people to learn about this kind of stuff and dedicate their life to it. You’re amazing!
    Valerie @ Indecisively Restless recently posted…Thorn by Intisar KhananiMy Profile

    1. Thank you! <3 There have definitely been points in time throughout this year (mostly during my current rotation--I think deliveries and births are terrifying), but the rest doesn't bother me, hehehe. :P

  18. Being a surgeon definitely seems like it would not be an easy job. It would take a lot of focus and education, that’s for sure. It is also amazing that there are robotics now a days that are able to help perform surgeries like this. It will be interesting to see what new technologies they are able to come out with in the future.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

CommentLuv badge