The 7.15am Club

PHHHEEWWW! First rotation of the year done and dusted. Starting off the clinical years was a complete change of pace and learning, let alone starting with surgery. The hours were gruelling! The iPhone’s alarm became my best friend at 5.30am, and sometimes we finished around 5pm; just making it home to squeeze in some dinner, a YouTube video or two, and then BAM, bed-time, before repeating the next day.

Transitioning from a set schedule, on a university campus, of where you needed to be on a given day and what lectures were scheduled and what exactly was happening that day, into an environment that was redolent of not knowing how the day would unravel was daunting! Normally, the days began with ward rounds at 7.15am on the dot! This is the time when the surgical team reviews all their patients on the list, and is notified of any complications by the overnight surgical team. Depending on how many patients there were to see, ward rounds could go for hours or just half an hour. After ward rounds, I managed and made my own day, which was something I was not acclimatised to. If I wanted to go see some surgeries, no one cared. If I wanted to go take some bloods, that was my prerogative. Everything was up to me, and everything exemplified the adage of “you get out what you put in”. As the weeks passed, not only did I get used to this new environment of learning, but I developed my clinical reasoning and embodied my role on a team of doctors.

In the operating room, you learn what to do, and definitely what NOT to do. What you definitely do not do, under any circumstance, is touch a sterile field, without yourself being sterile. At the vanguard of protecting the sterile field, is the omnipresent scrub nurse. These scrub nurses scour the operating room, looking for their next victim (often a medical student) and exhibit the stare of death and wrath of protection. It’s like the stare my mother would give a younger me, when I did something in public that was not resonating with her standards. As soon as I saw that stare from my mother, you best believe I knew I messed up and potentially had only have a few more hours on this earth.

Analogous to my mother, the scrub nurses made sure that us medical students performed hand hygiene and kept the sterile area, just that, sterile. Of course, not maintaining a sterile field has ramifications relating to infection control for the patient and overall outcomes, and consequently, you unequivocally agreed and did whatever the scrub nurse said. When in Rome…

I really enjoyed inserting cannulas, which became my new favourite activity. Apart from vampires and phlebotomists, there aren’t many people that say they enjoy taking blood from people’s veins, but alas, here I find myself. Just like many other procedural skills, where repetitive and deliberate practice, woven with reflection on what worked and didn’t work, cannulation was a gradual improvement of skills during the last five weeks. I initially started off quite nervous and apprehensive, exacerbated by my concern that I was causing significant pain to the patient. Probably for this reason, my first cannulation did not lead to any drawn blood. However, my attitude was that I did not know how to properly cannulate, YET. Therefore, the distance between where I was and where I needed to be with my cannulation skills could be gradually reduced and reached.

Oh my lord, when I inserted my first successful cannula, I felt this over-ridding sense of accomplishment and relief for the patient; relief that I had not worsened any pain. I even had the honour of inserting a cannula on two dark-skinned patients, which proved slightly more difficult. This one woman had never received a cannula before, and she was palpably nervous and fraught with what she believed was a painful procedure. It heightened my internal worry even more and as best as I could, I tried to maintain a semblance of control, and show a confident countenance. Luckily, there was no need for a second cannula, because this boi got it on first go. So, if you ever need a cannula inserted, you know where to find me…

Also, immense respect to the surgeons out there. What they do, and the mastery and expertise they show is just unfathomable. I could tell that they unrelentingly love what they do on a daily basis, and that is indicative of the kind of passion that is essential with surgery. You cannot just like surgery, you absolutely have to love it, as this love of such a specialty will get you through what seems is an impossible grind and journey to completion, in the midst of life’s other equally important needs of family, relationships, hobbies and health.

Anyhow, I hope you all have had a great start to the year so far.

I’m really looking forward to sliding my 5.30 alarm to deletion and getting some extra sleep with my next rotation- paediatrics! I’ll catch y’all then.

Eat your pancakes,

Anei