Trauma Surgery =-)

I'm sure every medical student feels like this at some point, but I feel really bad actually vocalizing it. Sometimes you want to see the worst diseases and the worst injuries, you even hope for them. Trauma surgery is one of those classes that REALLY makes you think this way. Car accidents, bike crashes, stabbings, burns...they have it all. And hey I'm not picky. It's not like I want anyone to get hurt or sick, but I'd like to see them so I know what they look like and how to treat them.

In all seriousness though, these patients were some of the sickest I've seen yet. They were also some of the most interesting. They were just your average, everyday person until one day something terrible happened that changed their life forever. What's scarier is that they could be anyone: you, me, your parents, your friends, ANYONE.

Some of the worst patients were the ones with burns or who had to have amputations. Most of them seemed in pretty good spirits, but a few seemed really down. It's the first time that I've seen the immediate result of an amputation so it was kind of surprising and educational at the same time. The surgeons motto here is, "if it can't be made to work 100%, cut it off." (Well, no one never said that directly, but it was implied).

The Doctors who taught us were really great. They really knew their stuff and were more than willing to help us out if we were interested in something. I think that's really important here especially, if you show that you're interested and treat the teachers with respect, the class is 10x better and you get to see way more. I don't think some classes have learned that yet though. Then again some teachers are just bad no matter how you swing it.

The best part by far was that I got to scrub in for my second time ever!!! It was on a broken elbow, I'm not sure how they broke it...but yeah. That was sort of the funny thing about the class- it's technically called trauma surgery and there was trauma, loads of it- just nothing that needed immediate attention. In the end it was primarily old lady's with broken hips and people who did something stupid and ended up with a broken leg/arm, the sort of stuff I'd typically expect an orthopedic doctor to deal with. When I asked, they said that they are trained as either orthopods or general surgeons and then become trauma surgeons. I guess that kind of makes sense.

Class technically ended on Wednesday, but today I went in to observe a procedure (medullary nailing of a fractured trochanter) and I'm going in tomorrow to do a night shift in the emergency room!

Needless to say, I'm kind of having a blast!