A while back, after finishing one trauma case with my *FTS, a thoracic aortic aneurysm was coming in by helicopter. The vascular surgeon on call saw me there and asked if I wanted to help. I most certainly did want to help! Though after a moments thought, he assured me it wasn't necessary. Since the patient was of medicare age, surely I would not get paid for the assist. I assured him that I still wanted to help because I don't get the experience of thoracic aneurysms very often.
We had to work rapidly and while I mostly did well, vascular surgery is not my strong suit, the surgeon had to guide me in proper technique a time or two. After the graft had been successfully sewn in place, and any leaks identified and repaired, we closed quickly to get the patient off the table and to the ICU, ASAP.
I always stay with my patients after the drapes come off. I help to transfer them from the OR table to their bed, I like to remain available for anaesthsia should there be any complications, and I help the OR team transport the patient to PACU or the ICU. While waiting there in the OR, the surgeon thanked me for helping and pointed out that I had helped save the patients life. I exhaled a sort of a self-conscious puff of air. He looked at me and insisted that he was serious. Without my help, he told me, he couldn't have done the operation and I definitely helped save a life.
I knew that if I hadn't have been there, my FTS would have been in line to help (he was having a very busy busy trauma night that night and I later told him that I took the bullet for him), or one of the vascular surgeon's partners would have come in and assisted. Still, it felt really good to be acknowledged with helping save a life, and that was payment enough.

*Favorite Trauma Surgeon

I'm in love with trauma (surgeons)?

I'm in love with trauma surgeons. The most unattractive trauma surgeon is still pretty hot. In fact one of the trauma surgeons told me that the girls always go for the trauma docs. That's why he became one! All of the trauma docs are married but one, and he has a significant other.
You know who else is hot? Neurosurgeons. Not spine surgeons, but bona fide, frontal lobe to cauda equina, neurosurgeons. The ones who can pluck a tumor out of your gray matter and send you home with all your functions still intact. That is power. That is amazing. That is hot. But, I also find it a little bit boring. Too predictable perhaps? Look at me, I'm calling brain surgery predictable. I guess what I mean by that it that it is so controlled. So calculated and mapped out in advance.
What is this deeply embedded desire I have for trauma? Is it about the surgeons themselves? With a trauma surgery you have to be thinking three steps ahead of the procedure. If Action A leads to Consequence B do we have Equipment C in the room? You must realize and admit that if what you just tried to do to control bleeding didn't work, it probably won't work the second time you try it either. You'll have to try something different. That's where plans B, and sometimes C and D come into play. Two eyes and hands are focused on the patient, one ear is tuned into anaesthesia, and the other ear monitors what's going on between the scrub and the circulator. The surgeon has to know when the time is right to do damage control only and get out, or if he has the luxury of being able to do a definitive repair. It's often fast moving, fast thinking, and always requires technical skill. I find the whole process, from the trauma bay (bonus if we get to meet the helicopter on the roof!), to the operating room, to the ICU, very seductive and addictive.
So my conclusion is that it is not the physical attributes of the trauma surgeons themselves that I find so attractive, as much as it is the fact that they have welcomed me into their world, shared with me some of their skill and knowledge, and have appreciated my obsession without taking it personally.

Ski Season

Ahhh, ski season. The season of broken femurs and severe head injuries, sometimes on the same patient. Broken ankles, wrists, pelvic fractures, and broken spines from C2 all the way to the tip of your coccyx. Trees and rocks and cliffs are so unforgiving.
Horses get a bad rap for being DANGEROUS creatures. I've taken more spills off of a horse than I can count on two hands, I know, doesn't say much for my riding ability, but in my defense I've ridden everything from barely broke Mustangs to horses who were just plain clumsy, and I have never had a broken bone or a head injury. Thank goodness.
You may think I look forward to ski season being a surgery junkie and all, but I actually find it to be a rather sad time of year. It's sad when teenage snowboarders come in with a traumatic head injuries, or a 40 something year-old comes in as a quadriplegic and has to be maintained on a vent.
I guess every one's gotta have a hobby, and maybe I am extremely lucky so far, but I think I'll stick to horses and leave the snowy mountains to those of you who don't fear it.