belated blog

Although it’s the fourth week, I still clearly remember the first day in the operating room.

One of the nurses warned me before I entered OR that some of the operations would be very gory. She also tried to make sure that I wouldn’t faint during observing and become the next patient in the emergency room. Another warning was do NOT touch anything, which was also what I wanted.

Actually, this was not the first time I was in the OR. But all the previous experiences are somewhat unpleasant because usually I was the one on the operating table. So I either had no mood to look around or I couldn’t remember anything after anesthesia. OR is more crowded than I expected. For a colorectal case, there are one major doctor, 2 to 3 residents, 2 to 3 nurses, and an anesthetist. If add some observers like me, there are almost 10 people surrounding the surgical table. Usually I stand next to the anesthetist, who sits at the head end of the surgical table and records the physiological signals. For some operations on the anal verge area, this is not the best place to observe, but for most operation on the abdomen, or laparoscopy, this is good enough to capture doctors’ every movement.

After the first day, I strongly feet that I need to build up some muscles on my leg if I want to be a doctor. A case can be last for several hours and doctors keep standing. Considering they also keep making decision in their mind, and cutting, stitching, I really appreciate their great effort for saving people’s life and enhancing patients’ quality of life.