rtt1010
Hey OB,
Guess how many cases I have today??
Zero
So that means I slip into the role of mom and housekeeper, and spend the day catching up on all pending tasks, as well as catching up with an old friend Dilnaz (she is abhishek's wife, the endometriosis surgeon).
So your message left me thinking....
I'm not entirely sure if SJQ is malavs boss? From what he said, I think he is still in Ahmedabad. He is supposed to be devastatingly handsome and single and living in Gujarat, doing robotic recipients. (This is what I have surmised from Malav's scant comments over the last 7 years.) So I don't know if it's the same person.
Top five surgeons you have seen.....now that's a bold statement to make. I always divide surgeons as good surgeons, bad surgeons, and then there are gifted surgeons. Allow me to ramble, please:
Good surgeons: those who are meticulous, choose patients well, take their time, don't repeat steps, plan the surgery, and have realistic outcomes.
Bad surgeons: poor skill, or poor patient selection, poor people management, all the instruments are defective.
Gifted surgeons: those with God's hands. Planes open up for them where there are none, surgical fears seem effortless in their hands, no step is repeated more than once.
Now with this breed, it's a double edged sword once they know their gift. It is then, they start to become cowboys, and dare devils, and it's a tight rope to walk.
If I have to name a gifted surgeon it would definitely be dr. Amish dalal, Dr Nilesh doctor and one dr. Pramesh I knew from Tata. Chinta.....well he's a good surgeon, but I never found him exceptional. I think he's a terrific person, (I don't know if you know about his 26/11 bravery) and he's my batchmate from KEM and I work quite a bit with him now, he's a thorough gentleman. I think malav is an excellent surgeon, who will grow to be a gifted surgeon, when he matures more. After all this rambling, I have to mention that we are only as good as our last mistakes. Do you remember that gastrectomy i did with AD sir? The one we did the VATS decortication for, subsequently? Well last weekend we did a gastrostomy and oesophagostomy on her. It's not going well:( i feel miserable every time I meet her and her husband. Shes only 63. So we all live with our failures, and they follow us through life like unrelenting shadows, growing and receeding and growing once again, with the passage of time. Nobody understands a doctors life, like a doctor, I think....
Whether you are a good surgeon or not, whether I am a good anesthetist or not....our self reflection doesn't matter. Infact, it's better if we don't think we are amazing, it keeps us rooted, grounded, and in touch with that inner voice that guides us in daily decisions regarding other people's fate. Don't you feel the same?
So yesterday became a crazy day. At the end of the TURP I felt the old Baba's eyes were looking a bit puffy, and forehead rather red. So I gave him hydrocort and avil and shifted him to recovery. After 45 mins his entire body was a deadly shade of scarlet and he was scratching like a monkey, but was hemodynamically stable, thankfully. I repeated hydrocort and begun preparing solumedrol. I had initially assumed he might have been allergic to amikacin or magnex forte, so couldn't understand why this was progressing. Then i wondered is he allergic to RL/ NS/ lasix???? Is that even possible? I called malav who then said "are you sure this isn't a Steven Johnson's?" at which point my heart started to race. I called a physician who said "dont give anything more, wait for an hour", so i withheld the solumedrol and prayed, and thankfully, after one hour he settled. Anyway, after that I told malav give whatever antibiotic you want when I'm not there!
Last case was the lap nephrectomy. He went in with a viziport and suddenly got a give way which felt like we were in the peritoneum, but we suddenly saw fluid with white specks and realised we had gone into the huge hydronephrotic kidney! Both of us were a bit taken aback, but he re-directed and re- entered and the case went off well. Surgeons life/ anesthetist's life.....never easy....
And somewhere in the world a PeePeeDoc is going a chole......seeing the posterior triangle of safety, and getting off on clipping the artery! You traitor to urology!! Scratch below the surface and you love your general surgery, don't you?
I hope it's a calm day, I hope all goes off well for you. I'm at NCPA with Antu today. Did you listen to the YouTube link I had sent you? Do listen if you have time to spare.
Peace and prayers always,
Aai