bonjour brightside

me: “my friend’s dad is a famous obstetrician in melbourne”

J: “i see… next time my son’s dad will be a famous surgeon”

me: “….”

Mr D gave me the honour of retracting brain tissue during one of the craniotomies. BRAIN! it just gets better everyday right now i just want to go “whadduppp” barney-stinson-style.

one of the best things that happened to me in my neurosurgery rotation was getting to watch an AWAKE CRANIOTOMY, today ie. brain surgery on a conscious patient. she had a tumor in her parietal lobe near Wernicke’s area, a strip of brain cortex that controls speech. if we removed too much of the tumor, she would lose her ability to talk. so Mr D opted to do the surgery while she was awake and we had to keep her talking throughout the surgery while we chipped away at the tumor.

we also used a cortical stimulator to determine the pre-frontal gyrus where the motor strip lay, by stimulating the brain with a small electric current and it was amazing to see her arms twitch whenever the current was applied. ok i will spare you the full details but IT WAS ABSOLUTELY MINDBLOWING. i mean, this is the stuff that i watch on Grey’s Anatomy and never ever thought i would get to see, but voila, my opportunity just came along! i think i hit the surgical jackpot- i am totally in awe and forever grateful. i will probably never see another surgery like this in my life but i’m sure i’ll remember it even if i’m 85 and demented heehee.

on a side note K and i both got ankle oedema from standing two hours at radiology meeting, so we took TED stockings from the ward to wear overnight. hahaha i hope it works

my life outside of the medical clamshell, in dot points:

• Woke up super late on the weekend! how i love not waking up at 545am!!!
• Spent a good $100 at MyChemist and Coles. who in the world spends $100 on groceries and toiletries?! ugh.
• Caught He’s Just Not That Into You on saturday, it was hilarious but not great, as all chick flicks are meant to be. really really want to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic though!
• Watched How I Met Your Mother (1.5 seasons over 3 days) and i think Barney Stinson aka Swarley is the shizz! omg he’s absolutely hilarious. really really tickles my rib! kind of reminds me of a certain someone i know…. wait make that 2 someones
• Ate a mountainload of junkfood (as usual). Finally satisfied my pancake craving. i am not fitting into my pants anymore
• Um that’s probably it….. oh we had a power trip too. not very fun, but hey it was the first time in 3 years! haha

theatre today, for some strange reason, was absolutely hilarious. kr and i were laughing our guts out every 5 minutes, secretly hi-fiving (Mr D+us 1 theatre manger 0), stuffing ourselves with pastries from the drug-reps….. omg it was a riot! i probably haven’t laughed so much in theatre till now. then again, my OT experience before neurosurgery was probably all of 5 hours.

Mr D let me assist for an anterior cervical disc fusion today and it was amazinggg. it really makes me understand how stuff works. i always thought that invertebral discs were jelly-like and translucent (cos of those illustrations in the anatomy books) but now i know they look and feel like crabmeat. haha. i also finally understand how the stealth machine works. understand as in i would probably be able to perform stealth craniotomy right now if i had to. hahaha.

it’s funny how surgery never crossed my mind, because most people including myself think i fit the “physician” stereotype, but whaddya know…. neurosurgery is really pretty interesting. no actually it is intense, hardcore and mindblowingly insane but i kind of enjoy it. i really love hanging out with the team, they are such champs and every day just seems like a ride…. i mean we spend 12 hours on average at the hospital everyday, but it flies by so quickly and surprisingly i’m not counting down to the end of the day like i did in GP. tiring, yes, but boring, no. never a dull moment i would say, we have too much fun laughter and joy. ahhh i dont want this rotation to end!