Estoy llenada.

Another block is over. I'll be honest, I was glad for the change. Not because of the rotation itself, I love hepatobiliary. And the pancreas...as scary as it is to mess with the pancreas, I love it! But it was just myself and a rotator on the service. She was nice, and enthusiastic. We got along fine. But she somehow missed the fact that a team of two is still a team.... and that got old by the end of four weeks. Frankly, I was rather annoyed and ready to be on a different team.

So now I'm back on trauma. And haven't been in the OR since. I miss operating, but... I'm really glad to be on a team again!
In the middle of rounds today, our OMFS rotator interrupted me to point out I had a piece of pepper stuck in my teeth. Having just met him two days prior I was initially taken aback at his boldness, but on second thought quickly replaced that with happiness that my teammates will watch out for each other. Leave it to the face/dental guy to care about our teeth!

One of my patients presented with a GSW to his abdomen, went to the OR emergently and now is recovering. Being shot from the front, the bullet was still lodged in the muscles in his back. It was actually so posterior that it was tenting a pinpoint area on his back. I took a blade, made a knick and helped it out. Today as we were leaving the room, I heard a family member leaning over to the patient whisper, "those are the guys who took out your bullet?!" A fascination in his tone, that I really wished had not been there. He was young; why do we live in a place were guns and violence is so fascinating and accessible to anyone, let alone our youth.

Interview season is upon us. Our first batch of candidates came through this week. We wined and dined them by inviting them to our journal club the other night. Here's a few of us residents that came out to represent.

Sitting L to R: Ansab, Vasu, Miles, Agon
Standing L to R: Kenji, Faisal, Maria Clara, me, Hanjoo, Ash

Much Love.