Surgery Week!

Very interesting indeed! The very first day we were in minor ops and the first operation we saw was an adult male circumcision. I never knew I would be one of those people, but I got dizzy and felt sick, and almost passed out. I was fine once I left the room, but seeing the patient in pain and empathizing too much with it is what made me feel sick. This was a very important lesson for me - as a doctor or health care provider you must really learn to create boundaries between yourself and the patient, health boundaries. I also had to keep reminding myself that whatever pain was being caused, it was in the best interest of the patient, and done in order to make for less pain in the future. Once I started thinking like this it became much easier to observe the other surgeries. We saw such a wide range of surgeries from abscess removals to major orthopedic operations.

On one of the days we were with Dr. Singh as he was lecturing a group of medical students in the GI Unit. He spoke of the growing apathy he is seeing new doctors and tried to encourage the students to remember what got them in the field of medicine in the first place. He said all the new interns now only care about themselves, their time off, their schedules, not extending themselves an inch beyond what is required. He drew a scale with Altruism on one end and Egoism on the other end, and asked where the students were on this scale today, and told them to ask themselves that question every day. I found it to be very good advice. I think the nature of the job, especially as a surgeon, causes you to forget sometimes what made you want to be a doctor in the first place, what with all the stress and demands. You begin to forget the passion. I hope to remember this scale as I progress through the stages toward becoming a doctor.

We did do an overnight shift once, which was interesting. It was a rather slow night, though we did get to see 2 orthopedic surgeries in the middle of the night, nothing trauma-related though really. But I liked seeing the flow of the hospital at that time, how it empties out and becomes all quiet after all the chaos in the day.

In terms of down time, we did do some decent exploring of other beaches in and around Durban. We drove up to a suburb area up north called Umhlanga with a gigantic mall and a bunch of nice restaurants. I tried the famous dish here called Bunny Chow, a type of bread bowl with curry ~ delicious! The beach was also beautiful with a pier made of whale bones.

 

We also went to the Ushaka Marine World Aquarium, which is the largest in the southern hemisphere.

Oh! And I jumped off the largest swing in the world in the Moses Mabhida Stadium. It was pretty scary but actually so much fun!