Surgery!

My dad came on June 23rd and I met him at home in Ahmedabad. I had so much fun with him and my family, I extended my stay for a week. Total I was there for a little over two weeks shopping, hanging out with my cousins, AND shadowing my Uncle (Shrikant Mama) who is a plastic surgeon. This last Saturday he started me out by taking me to the public hospital burn ward. We saw one woman whose throat and neck was completely burnt. He told me that most of his burn patients are female and their burns are a result of attempted suicide. He added that most of the time they are socially driven to such extreme measures. For this case in particular, he agreed with me that it could have been abuse but he wasn't sure what the cause was. The next woman we saw had been completely burnt from head to toe. You couldn't even see her eyes! They had been sunken in (I think), and essentially, she had no face. The resident said that she suffered from Schizophrenia which accounted for her attempted suicide.

After the ward, I congratulated myself on being able to see all the open wounds and I knew I would be fine in the operation room. The first operation was trivial--a young girl who wanted a scar on her hand revised. I stood next to Shrikant Mama and watched as they prepped her hand and injected the local anesthetic. As I watched, I suddenly felt everything in my intestines shuffle about and my face went cold. I felt light headed and knew that I must be on the verge of fainting. I put a piece of candy in my mouth and try to play it cool. I was so embarrassed, how could the sight of an uncut, perfectly normal hand make me woozy when I had JUST seen terrifying sights? Shrikant mama caught me putting the candy in my mouth and ordered the nurse to take my pulse. It was normal but I was sweating. I sat down and luckily I was fine. The wave past and I coulnd't help but laugh at myself, as soon as he started cutting, I was fine. It must have been the anticipation.

Our next patient was a young man who had a severe motorcycle accident. He was in critical condition for months and now that he is more stable he was brought to Shrikant Mama for facial reconstruction--he had several fractures that had healed improperly. His teeth weren't meeting properly and he could not chew. The floor of his eye socket had shattered and Shrikant Mama would have to insert an artificial floor made of synthetic material or a bone graft. I stood for 4 hours of the 7 hour surgery. I was tired and not feeling well so I left for lunch. I missed the bone graft ut he showed me the fractures. Honestly, it was hard to tell. Everything looked like a big bloody mess to me (literally).

The next day our patient was a 16 year old girl who had been born with a uterus but no Vagina. Doctors suggested that the vagina be created when she reached puberty. Shhrikant Mama and a OBGYN performed that surgery a year ago but she was back with immense menstrual pain. They concluded that her cervix was not opening properly and thus holding in all the menstrual fluid. They would have to go in and widen her cervix. Shrikant mama said that the surgery should last no longer than 1 hour. But of course nothing goes as expected. When they opened her up they discovered that she had an odd shaped uterus. The next few hours went on with the doctors just trying to FIND her cervix. In the process the OB nicked her bladder so they had to call in an Urologist (turned out to be fine). We also called in another OB for advice. Seriously this was like watching a movie. Halfway through the surgery the anesthesiologist said that she was in cardiac arrest. Everyone panicked for a moment--cardiac arrest for such a simple surgery?! He then quickly revised his statement and said that she was merely in shock because of one of the drugs. 5 doctors and 4 hours later they decided that she didn't HAVE a cervix. At this point they concluded that she wouldn't be able to conceive and that they should save her the time and effort and just perform a hysterectomy. They went out to ask her family, but her father wasn't present and her mother wouldn't (couldn't) make the decision. Instead they had to create a cervix and they inserted a catheter that she would have to keep there for 6 months to make sure the passage doesn't close. What an experience. Hungry and tired Shrikant mama and I drove back home.

Now I am back in Dharampur and Ach comes on Saturday!! My medical adventures will be over and we will start our trekking adventure in Ladakh/Kashmir! More to come