On Call part 2

On friday I went to shadow some of the residents on call at the hospital for the second time. I learned some very important lessons that night. The first case that I got to see was the tail end (no pun intended) of a colon and rectum resection (Lower Anterior Resection is the technical term). The patient was an older gentleman who had colon cancer. The procedure was very interesting to watch. They had removed about 1.5 feet of his colon including his rectum all the way down to just above what is called the pectinate line (the sphincter region of the anus.) They then reattached what was left of his colon at this point. The surgeons had run into a few problems and the procedure lasted about 10 hours. This was a very interesting followup to the colonoscopy that I saw a couple of weeks ago. This is what happens when you don't detect colon cancer early and man it was not pretty. I wished that I could pictures of the procedure and make a poster to encourage people to get colonoscopies after the age of 50. Anyway, I won't provide any more details.



The surgeon was a colorectal surgeon who had recently came to OSU. He was a great guy. He had been up since 2:00am that morning, started the colon resection at 9:30am and finished at 8:00 pm. Even after working so long, he was very nice to talk to. I asked him and the resident the question that has been burning in my mind: "Why colorectal surgery?" They both responded that they have really enjoyed the interactions they have had with colorectal surgeons. They tend to be very friendly, and have a great sense of humor. They also enjoy the procedures which I will say the one I saw was very interesting. It seemed almost impossible to accomplish what they did.



I also got to go down to the emergency department with another resident. They had a car crash victim that they were evaluating and while we were there a gunshot victim also came in. He had been found wandering aroud with two bullet holes in his leg. There were both entry and exit wounds. The patient was quite intoxicated and pretty difficult to work with. Tensions seemed to be running high between the ER staff, the surgical staff and the radiology crew. It reminded me a lot of volunteering at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center emergency deptartment and why I am not at all interested in doing emergency medicine. I was extremely impressed with the surgical resident's ability to control the situation and evaluate the surgical needs of the patient. It basically amounts to controlling chaos.