I cut my first C-Section

That title should be in all-caps. Because I am THAT excited! My first rotation in third year med school was OBGYN. I delivered a baby before I even know how to put up an IV. And now, my first rotation of Internship is OBGYN, and this time the big milestone is delivering babies via C-section.

Operating with an Impeccable Surgeon

Wow. I was on call on Friday (24+ hours) and it was INSANE. I did not sleep once and spent probably three-quarters of the night in theater. One emergency C-section after another, a handful of ectopic pregnancies – and a team of two: one medical officer and one intern (that’s me).

Patience with Patients

There have been a few times in the last year that I was ashamed of myself. In this particular case, I was on Vascular Surgery Week. It is one of our toughest weeks of Student Internship. We started the day at 07:00 and never left earlier than 21:00 that whole week. The days were incredibly

Late Presentations: A New Perspective

When medical students and doctors get bored, they start sharing “late presentation” stories. My first such experience was in third year, when a homeless man presented to us with horribly advanced rectal cancer. I was so disturbed that he had allowed it to progress so far, and I shared the story in a post. I

The Worst Scut Ever

You can all go home now. I win at this contest. You think doing rectal exams on every incoming trauma or abdominal patient is bad? You think dripping all the agitated drunks is bad? A few weeks ago I was asked to do what I believe is the weirdest scut ever. (For the non-medical people out

Book Review: The Backwash of War

In 1915, Ellen N. La Motte arrived in Europe as one of the first American volunteer nurses to work in the field hospitals of World War 1. She was specialised as a Tuberculosis nurse, a keen observer and a writer unafraid of judgment. And she wrote. The Backwash of War: The Classic Account of a

Reflections on Orthopaedics

I’m really just looking for an excuse to post this awesome picture. This giraffe is an educational model. It’s big and fluffy and beautiful – I have an affinity for giraffes in part due to my great-grandmother – and also it has a real spine that the orthopods used to teach the students on rotation

Transplant Surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa

I have made no secret of my bad relationship with surgery. So why would I attend a meeting of a student surgical society, having just escaped the claws of my SI surgical rotation (passed the OSCEs, by the way!)? Three reasons: The hope that it will inspire me for exam preparation (fewer than five weeks

The Interns vs. The Student Interns

Editing this post for the sake of maturity and propriety. So, I had my Surgery OSCEs today. They were pretty awful and I am really just hoping for a pass, which I will hopefully improve in the upcoming exams. This rotation was even worse than the same rotation in third year. I have never been

Why I Won’t Specialise in Surgery: Reason #143

I don’t think there are really that many reasons, but this is one of them. I actually referred to a forceps as “scissors” on call the other night, and had a trauma surgeon look at me with great concern. What? If it has handles like scissors it is a scissors, done. Also it was three