last night's promise

I am writing this here so that I will be held accountable for my promise in the future. Last night, I was in ED looking for some patients to perform a musculoskeletal examination on. Well, I was debating between examining the patient with a hudson mask on and calling in a triage 4? 5? from the waiting room. Either option was quite inappropriate, and I was crippling myself with my indecision when the registrar I was supposed to meet walked into the ED.

It took about 5 minutes for him to sort out his business, and for me to realise that I wouldn't be able to examine any of the present patients. So when he said "do you want to scrub up for a case?", I was like, "Okay.." even though ideally, we're not supposed to scrub up for any case unless we've taken a history from the patient. I don't know how it transpired that he was more enthusiastic about me scrubbing in than I was. I used to love going into theatre, but I think that the last arthroplasty I went to (another story somebody else would be happy to tell) crushed my spirit.

So there we were, in theatre. It was a wound debridement. While we were washing it out (we took turns between sucking and washing), he gave me tips on the general things to include when discussing orthopaedic conditions: DEEP SCRATCH. And then he let me put in four subcuticular stitches, before showing me how to do an Aberdeen knot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npS7BSIyr_4
The same went for stapling- first he described to me what he was doing, then it was my turn to staple the other half of the incision. He dictated, and I wrote. And we both signed off the surgical notes.

After that, he met up with his intern and treated us to dinner. The intern treated drinks (non-alcoholic). And I? I "choped" the table! Kidding. I was made to promise that when I'm a registrar, I too will be nice to my students and treat them to meals.

So here it is, that I will be held accountable. To remember that not every registrar was too busy/proud to talk to and mentor (teach, talk to, and treat!) younger medical students. And also to remember the thrill of a medical student putting in her first stitch- in a person, and not your stuffed toy/ pork knuckle/ anything and everything you can get your hands on.

P.S. That wasn't the first time I'd sutured, thankfully- otherwise would seriously have humiliated myself. Or maybe I would have been asked to stop after my first stitch, like the first time I closed a port insertion wound. Haha. It was my first stapling experience, though!