Time

Well, time is slipping by so quickly I can hardly believe the summer is almost over. As unfortunate as it is that the final weeks of the program approach, the passing time does afford one huge benefit - human interaction. I have hit the point in my summer that a large number of repeat patients of Dr. Spector recognize me and expect my presence. During clinic hours we see a plethora of pre-op, post-op, and consult patients and, since I’m basically glued to Dr. Spector, interact with all of these people.

After hanging around enough during clinic I get to experience a more personal connection and understanding of each case that is presented. It is all well and good to pop into a surgery because the case is interesting or it is a procedure you haven’t seen before, but I really enjoy taking in the big picture. Going into an OR with a patient whom I have met, talked to, and begun to understand their mindset and choice for undergoing a particular type of surgery brings the experience to a whole new level. It is also incredibly gratifying to visit the patient while they recover in the hospital and then follow them as they come in for subsequent post-op visits. It still amuses me that some patients a day after surgery insist on asking how I am doing when they are the ones bandaged up in a hospital bed. I suppose this whole circle of care is what medicine is truly about and as a biomedical engineer I need to try not to forget to live up to the word medical in my title.

Of course I also so have some amazing surgical stories as well. You wouldn’t think I would leave you without the possibility of being grossed out or astonished by what I’ve seen, would you? So here’s what I’ll leave you with this week: We had a patient that needed exploratory wrist surgery to assess and repair the damage done when a circular saw cut their arm. After increasing the length of the wound, the surgical team found that the patient had nicked their tendon and severed one of their median nerve which supplies sensation to the hand. After repairing the tendon, Dr. Spector decided that to fix the nerve it would be best to make a bridge to connect the two damaged ends and not try to force the two ends together under too much tension. So of course the only logical thing to do was obviously take a 2 cm segment of the patient’s vein, clean it, and then sew this graft to join the ends. Again, who thinks of these things?!?! Apparently for nerve damage repair one can use vein grafts for gaps up to 2 cm and get fairly good results. I tell you, medicine is a kooky place.