This topic was written by : Dr.Marianne DiNapoli I can hardly believe I’m typing this, but I am DONE with my surgery rotation! All in all, it was a wonderful experience, one with an enormous learning curve. Of course, I learned the basics of the diseases and conditions that require surgical intervention. But what I’d like to share with you all is what I learned about the qualities a good surgeon must possess. Surgeons need to have a very strong stomach. I saw things that would probably make most normal people barf. This includes, but is not limited to: limbs being cut off, massive amounts of pus being squeezed out of an abscess, and gaping wounds with raw flesh bulging out. Yet somehow, I managed not to flinch throughout this. Check! Surgeons need to live without much food and water. Surgeries can last for many hours at a time, and none of the doctors ever seemed to have to take a break, so I swore that I wouldn’t either. If I don’t eat, then I don’t need to drink any water; if I don’t drink water, then I don’t ever have to pee. Problem solved! Surgeons survive with very little sleep. I was in the hospital on average from 5:00 AM to 8:00 PM every day. This leaves just enough time to shower, have dinner, study and sleep for a few hours before I have to wake up and do it again. This was super tough for me. I have to admit, I felt pretty exhausted most days. Surgeons need big egos. As one surgeon told me, “Surgery is 90% confidence, and 10% medial knowledge.” And unfortunately, the only negative feedback I received from the doctor who was in charge of me was that I needed to have more confidence when I gave my patient presentations. Maybe that’s something I will develop as the year goes on. So all in all, will I go into surgery? I’d say that right now, I can’t rule it out. I had a lot of fun the past five weeks. There’s just something so cool about first getting to know your patients, and then later getting to go inside their bodies to fix them. Source
