In the name of medicine...

Today I stitched up my first awake patient. He had skin cancer that the surgeon sliced out. Then we had to sew him back together.
Everyday seems to have a new learning experience. It's hard to keep up - hence the slight blogging hiatus that I'm trying to catch up from.

Last week, I felt as if I was torturing people in the name of medicine, while they slept.
As one of the MDs said, "you can go home and tell mom that you stabbed someone today." I cut someone open with a scalpel. It was a tiny incision on a laparoscopic procedure - but it was still a sharp knife. Then I poked them with a needle repeatedly in an effort to stitch them shut again. 

I also yanked some poor kid's toenail off. He asked for it. Really - it had been bothering him for a long time. When they say general surgery - they sure mean general! I was not expecting to have to do that. There's definitely a bit of a grossed out feeling that comes with peeling the nail off. Gruesome. Maybe even worse than blood and guts. 

In other news, after those interesting experiences (you'll never guess what I did today...) I went home and enjoyed a nice weekend with family. My uncle who lives on the other side of the country was visiting Wisconsin so we had a mini reunion.