"It's so cold in the D"

This month is my elective month, which means that the masochist in me came out and I signed up for an extra month of surgery... trauma surgery, at Detroit Receiving Hospital... which means all sorts of craziness.

When I first arrived everyone asked why the crap I was doing an extra month of surgery in my 3rd year, including one of my attending (who happens to be a god of trauma surgery.. more on that later). My answers... I wanted to make sure surgery was right for me; although I was almost positive I was set for surgery after my surgery rotation, I wanted to see if I could cut it at a "harder" hospital (So far it's only made me want to go into surgery more); I wanted to learn about medical management of surgical patients (which I knew I'd get on the Ls team); and I couldn't imagine having the opportunity to do surgery for a month and spend the month doing something else... Plus, there's always the goal of getting a potential letter from any elective you do in your specialty (not gonna lie there...).

More on my team... I'm working with the legends of DRH: Charles E Lucas and Anna M Ledgerwood, also known as "The Ls". Both of them have published tons of papers on trauma and the effects of trauma. They are both BRILLIANT. They expect excellence. They are amazing surgeons and compassionate physicians. Basically, they are who I want to be at some point in my career.

Not only are my attendings on the service great, but I have to say that my senior (top resident) has been a great example. He is calm through everything and expects a lot. He does a LOT of pimping (which in the lingo for asking questions), but it's forced me to study and actually learn. I think I've learned more in the past week and a half than in a comparable amount of time on any service. Not having a shelf exam hanging over my head helps...

Needless to say, the past few weeks have been an amazing experience... and only confirmed my passion for surgery. So here's to being a pseudo-sub-I* and taking q3** call on an elective. Bring it. :)



*a sub-I is a month long rotation during your 4th year, where you're expected to act as an intern and cover the ICU patients... we don't have a 4th year, so I'm covering the ICU patients
**q3 means spending every 3rd night in the hopsital.