Today, I am the happiest retractor holder in the world.

While the PCR reaction was happily amplifying downstairs in the lab, I took the opportunity to go up to the operating theatres to watch a few operations and hopefully do some trivial clinical tasks. Little did I know I got more than I bargained for. To my amazement, the Orthopedic surgeon asked whether I'd like to scrub in for the operation. That was an opportunity I simply could not refuse.

I had previously scrubbed in for short muscle biopsies, but never a case of this calibre. It was an exostosis operation taking around 2 hours. I made many mistakes while scrubbing in since extreme care need to be taken to maintain sterile, and that there are certain differences in scrubbing protocols between muscle biopsies and orthopedic cases. Yet, I managed to survive the gruelling task of THE ULTIMATE HANDWASHING AND PUTTING ON GLOVES.

Throughout the operation, I had extreme close up views of the wound, the bony outgrowths, and how the surgeon chipped away the bone using what I call a bone chisel. While my heart is pumping away with the adrenaline and endorphin, the surgeon remained calm and in control, a quality I will endeavour to acquire in the future.  

Not only did I stand up close for the operation, I also fulfilled my duties as a medical student to: 1) give the wrong answer for questions asked by the surgeon, 2) pretend I didn't bludge through med school by stating the obvious, 3) entertain the surgeon by asking stupid questions, 4) annoy the scrub nurse by getting in her way 5) Find the best pose to look cool in while holding a retractor.

Although this is just a mundane task compared to a surgeon's, but for a first timer like me, as if the first time driving a car, it was a terrifying yet exhilerating experience.

Now to document a few other clinical encounters so far.

1) I was learning how to be a "people person" and relate to patients, so while the anaesthetist was putting on the mask for a little boy going in for a CT, I said to the boy's father, "your kid has the most gorgeous eyes". ( WHICH IS EXACTLY TRUE!!! THE KID HAD REALLY BEAUTIFUL CRYSTAL BLUE EYES!!!) Then while the CT scan was on, I read the patient history to realize the CT scan was for a retinoblastoma (tumour of the eye). To make it even worse, the ophthalmologist later on commented that it was the biggest retinoblastoma she'd ever seen, it was so obvious, and the only way is to excise the entire eye. I felt devastated, and to think that the last thing the parents heard before they find out about the diagnosis is some unwitting med student telling them how beautiful their son's eyes are.

2) One of the nice anaethetists decided to teach my cannulation of the vein. Although the patient was asleep, I was very nervous. I mean, you ARE STICKING A NEEDLE INTO A PERSON WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING IT BLEED. So after I got the cannula into the vein, I was already flustered, so as I took the needle out, the blood started gushing out of the cannula. I was panicking so badly, thought I had hit an artery or something, then the anaethetist pointed out that I forgot to take the torniquet off. I was already shaken pretty badly at that time, but the procedure hasn't finished, I still had to flush the cannula with saline, but my trembling hand didn't screw on the syringe properly and all the saline began spurting out over my hand and gown. Throughout all this time, not only was the anaesthetist present, but also the anesthetic nurse and the surgeon, so I have publically humiliated myself in front of all these prominent ppl. I was sure that silently they were laughing at my stupidity. Then as I was trying to recompose myself and reading the poster on "how to insert a cannula properly" on the wall, the light-hearted surgeon  probably tried to cheer me up, and so he sneaked behind me and shouted, "BOO!" I literally SCREAMED!!! Thinking back now, it's kind of funny, but at the time OMG IT WAS THE MOST TRAUMATIZING MOMENT OF MY LIFE!!!

more tales of the sine wave to come...