| | It's July. The beginning of a new academic year.
But not for me. 
On the first of the month, I turned over the service to the newly-minted PGY-3's. Then I escaped the hospital.
I have now completed the general surgery portion of my residency. Three years as a general surgery resident -- learning all about trauma, oncology, thoracic, vascular, hepatobiliary, colorectal. Three years, laying my hands on people's bellies and telling them, "I think you have appendicitis," or "You're a drug-seeking ER frequent flier who already had your appendix taken out!"
Even though my formal general surgery training is over, in another sense it has only begun. The real general surgery starts in a week. There is so much I don't know about surgery. Orthopaedics, obstetrics, gynecology, neurosurgery, urology -- and let's not forget plastic surgery.
The case mix and operative load in Kenya will be so vastly different from anything I'm used to the States that I can't help but already gasp and gulp for air. Supracondylar fractures, prostatectomies, ventriculoperitoneal shunts -- all things I've never managed before. All things that are done at Kapsowar Hospital in Kenya.
Internship begins again. |
| | Posted 7/4/2009 12:05 PM - 36 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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