Vascular Surgery

I've finished my colo-rectal surgery attachement now. Aside from smelling rather bad, it was by and large a fun experience. I suppose the only negative point was headbutting the consultant by accident in the operating theatre as we both bent down to look into the abdomen. I think he came off worse though, but the patient was fine so all was well!

I've now swapped over onto vascular surgery, which is in a word, minging. The big problem people with vascular problems seem to suffer is their limbs not getting a good enough blood supply, and so they go black and necrotic and horrible. They look horrific and smell even worse! And so, how does one treat a necrotic foot? Well, rather obviously you fill it with maggots! Yes, the doctors on the wards put a bunch of maggots (in what looks like a tea bag) into the wounds of some patients! The logic is, the maggots will eat all the dead material leaving the wound clean and happy. To me, it sounds quite a distressing experience - but it does actually seem to work. If maggots don't float your boat, other proven options include dressings made of honey or silver. Odd!

General Surgery

Leaving old people far behind, I have now moved onto my general surgery attachment. Which is actually a bit of a misnomer. General surgery is sort of dying out a bit - people are specialising more and more. Gone are the days when you were a general surgeon and dealt with anything that came through the door. Now you are a general surgeon with an interest in Upper gastrointestinal tract disease, or colo-rectal disease or vascular disease.

I am currently attached to a colorectal surgeon. Why one would wan't to revolve ones career around other people's bottoms is a bit beyond me, but everyone seems pretty excited and enthused about their chosen career. Colorectal disease incorporates many important conditions, with perhaps colon cancer springing to mind first. I've seen a lot of patients this week with colon cancer, some of whom will probably be ok, and some of whom really only have a few months to live. I've come across cancer a few times over the past year, but i've never really been around when the bad news about a diagnosis of cancer is given to a patient. This week i've seen it 3 times. It's a horrible feeling to go into a room knowing you have to tell someone they have cancer - even when you're just watching someone else do it!

Aside from academic things, my group out on attachment have decided we need to bond a bit more, so next week we're going to go out into the local town near where we are dressed as chavs. But i'm not really sure how a chav dresses, so it's going to take a bit of researching.

This week i've also been trying to decide what I want to do for my special study module in may. There are loads of choices, and the module is 5 weeks, so if you choose something good you can have a really awesome month. The choices ranged from projects on the history of anatomy to working in a heart transplant unit. Something for everything, but there are about 80 possibles and I have to choose 5! argh!