first day in surgery

this might be a quick one, and no pictures; it was a long day.

I've been waking up quite early for some reason, but it's very peaceful to listen to the birds and yes, the rain. although i may strangle the rooster down the street by the end of the six weeks i'm here--i know one thing about roosters, and that is that they're supposed to crow when the SUN IS UP.

I had my scrubs and white coat going on this morning, and my host mom dropped me off so I didn't have to catch the route taxi. It's an experience here to catch one, as taxis are completely different than in the US. I walked on down the road, feeling quite conspicuous in my scrubs and coat, but a man passed me and said "Hey gorgeous" which is rather flattering. It's fairly common to be complimented walking down the street, and the men aren't usually too aggressive about it, just wanting to compliment you, so it was a confidence booster.

I had my first experience with Jamaican time this morning, waiting 45 minutes for the person to show up to introduce me to the "attending," which is not what they call them here. But we got it sorted.

[this is all medical stuff, which may/may not appeal to everyone!]

I ended up on my first surgery with one of the doctors, but i'm not sure how trained he was--if he would be our version of a resident or fellow or what, because he wasn't treated the same way as the attendings (in the plural because there are two! total!). But he asked if i've ever assisted in surgery, i said yes, so i got scrubbed in.

Which is a completely different experience here. They directed me to the scrub room, with a nurse assisting me to show me things. She offered me a bar of soap or the liquid soap. I inquired after brushes, but there is no such thing here. I took the bar of soap, sitting on the shelf, clearly used for multiple scrubs, and scrubbed the way I've been taught to find out that it's not the way they do it here, but it was sufficient. You also have to use the other hand to wash off the soap, so that was different, and the nurse has to turn the water off for you. I had to pick up my own towel, which was fine, but I'm not sure they knew what I was doing as I flipped it from one side to the other to dry each individual hand. Also, they pile your materials in a different order so that caused a bit of a disruption as I tried to figure that out. You also do this all yourself, so I'm doing the best I can, considering I've never done this without the scrub tech watching me like a hawk. I double-gloved in the same size (after having to defend the fact that I'm a 6 1/2 glove, no one EVER believes me about that, the world over!). No latex free, so here's to hoping the allergy doesn't get out of hand before these two weeks are over. The gowns are cloth and reused. No face shields, or eye protection offered at all.

And later, one of the surgeons was observing a cholecystectomy and his mask just fell off his nose and then off his mouth and no one bothered to correct him. Having your mask on in the OR is a rather flexible concept here...

The surgeries themselves are the same, so no need to bore you on the inguinal hernia repair.

I made a friend afterwards of a Jamaican medical student, so things should go smoothly. But apparently in Jamaica, I should just go into any OR and observe; I shouldn't introduce myself or expect to be introduced to anyone. Also, the school system and intern/residency is completely different here...so are start times and hours worked. I finished at 1:30 today.

I spent some time chatting with the attendings about the differences in the American medical system and the Jamaican, and I can get into the later because it was a fascinating discussion.

It's a bit dispiriting actually, to think about in toto.

Regardless, I headed out to the PA office and got to meet another American, a Canadian, and another Scandinavian, before we all headed out to meet the rest of the PA volunteers and have the PA Olympics--two teams of volunteers and one of staff. Our team was valiantly defeated, as all females and one male might have a tendency to do in sporting events. We did well in tug of war, thanks to a bit of physics theory that I can spout as how to how to win (I also did not participate in the three legged race, but it's good to know that adults have figured out what children haven't). And Jamaicans will always win sprinting events. Always.

More sunburned today, even with judicious sunscreen application. Actually, I have a red neck--interesting that I had to come to Jamaica to get the red neck for which West Virginians are known.

Off to the hospital early tomorrow--7:30. It's a very early start here!