Surgical Reflections.
There is one week left before I begin my teaching at Mt. Hood Community College, and I'm feeling the push to get everything done before the time catches me. Power points and teaching outlines and visual aides, oh my.
I can still remember the mantras of my own teachers who encouraged me to learn all I could and do my best at every task. One of my mentors in clinical rotations, Mark Baker, CST, told me, "Do it right the first time, and you'll have no need for an excuse the second time." I will pass this along to my students next week along with the idea that surgery is actually a simple concept. The majority of which is simply hemostasis, or stopping the bleeding. Though we use eletrocaudery these days, it's still the standard to clamp off and tie both ends of a bleeding vessel with 2-0 silk or Vicryl then cut the ends of the suture and observe if the bleeding persists. The mantra goes, "clamp, clamp, tie, cut, observe, repeat." Simple.
Still, I can only imagine that teaching about surgery would seem a taunting task to those that see surgery as a matter of delicacy and enormity. Though I still think surgery is both a serious and no small matter, I hardly think of surgery as difficult when I'm there. The surgeon is a well-attributed practitioner, assisted by capable staff and professional individuals. A lot of the complexity is likely brought about by those that watch television and presume that every case is harrowing, life-threatening or carries far-reaching consequences... and this is only partly true.
Not everyone who goes in for surgery will come out alive, this is true. However, not all cases are as life-threatening as acute trauma, advanced disease process intervention, organ transplantation or such high profile cases. These are the subjects of television shows who wish to hype their evening of drama to pad the show while stringing together weak sub-plots based on weaker sexual intercourse between the weakest of stereotypical characters. The "reality" of surgery is that it's an imperfect science, socially presumed to be a perfected one through advanced techniques and evidence-based progression in our understanding of the human body and its processes. These same people that presume surgery to be "a sure bet" will also admit that we do not know everything there is to be known about the capabilities of the human body. After all, many more people than not hope to become more than they are currently.
The chance that someone shall, by sheer will, beat cancer after chemotherapy, extensive drug regiments and tumor removal surgery is a well told tale. One that happens more often to the young rather than the elderly. Because of this preference, that of telling the success stories more often than the failures, surgery escapes the stigma of appearing as it truly is: that it has as many facets to it affording it the true standard of imperfection as there are idiosyncrasies inherent of the human body. Add to this that the body any individual human being, after making the conscious (or often unconscious if involved in trauma) decision to undergo surgery, processes many more individual characteristics (known and unknown) it is a wonder that we have willingly allowed ourselves to be subjected to the method of surgery for over several millennia.
We are a truly amazing facet of society. Those capable of being a part of surgery and surgical procedures possess qualities to witness the greatest of suffering and triumph. Clamp, clamp, tie, cut, observe, repeat.
I can still remember the mantras of my own teachers who encouraged me to learn all I could and do my best at every task. One of my mentors in clinical rotations, Mark Baker, CST, told me, "Do it right the first time, and you'll have no need for an excuse the second time." I will pass this along to my students next week along with the idea that surgery is actually a simple concept. The majority of which is simply hemostasis, or stopping the bleeding. Though we use eletrocaudery these days, it's still the standard to clamp off and tie both ends of a bleeding vessel with 2-0 silk or Vicryl then cut the ends of the suture and observe if the bleeding persists. The mantra goes, "clamp, clamp, tie, cut, observe, repeat." Simple.
Still, I can only imagine that teaching about surgery would seem a taunting task to those that see surgery as a matter of delicacy and enormity. Though I still think surgery is both a serious and no small matter, I hardly think of surgery as difficult when I'm there. The surgeon is a well-attributed practitioner, assisted by capable staff and professional individuals. A lot of the complexity is likely brought about by those that watch television and presume that every case is harrowing, life-threatening or carries far-reaching consequences... and this is only partly true.
Not everyone who goes in for surgery will come out alive, this is true. However, not all cases are as life-threatening as acute trauma, advanced disease process intervention, organ transplantation or such high profile cases. These are the subjects of television shows who wish to hype their evening of drama to pad the show while stringing together weak sub-plots based on weaker sexual intercourse between the weakest of stereotypical characters. The "reality" of surgery is that it's an imperfect science, socially presumed to be a perfected one through advanced techniques and evidence-based progression in our understanding of the human body and its processes. These same people that presume surgery to be "a sure bet" will also admit that we do not know everything there is to be known about the capabilities of the human body. After all, many more people than not hope to become more than they are currently.
The chance that someone shall, by sheer will, beat cancer after chemotherapy, extensive drug regiments and tumor removal surgery is a well told tale. One that happens more often to the young rather than the elderly. Because of this preference, that of telling the success stories more often than the failures, surgery escapes the stigma of appearing as it truly is: that it has as many facets to it affording it the true standard of imperfection as there are idiosyncrasies inherent of the human body. Add to this that the body any individual human being, after making the conscious (or often unconscious if involved in trauma) decision to undergo surgery, processes many more individual characteristics (known and unknown) it is a wonder that we have willingly allowed ourselves to be subjected to the method of surgery for over several millennia.
We are a truly amazing facet of society. Those capable of being a part of surgery and surgical procedures possess qualities to witness the greatest of suffering and triumph. Clamp, clamp, tie, cut, observe, repeat.
Patch Adam Perryman wrote this at 22:25
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