I had my OR rotation earlier this month. There's something about the OR that is really exhilarating. When you scrub in to a case it's a really cool feeling participating in surgery but as a 3rd year student your main concern is to not get in the way and not break the sterile field lol. I threw my first sutures on a live patient a couple weeks ago, so I guess you could say it was my first procedure in the OR! I was concerned that my hands were going to shake but thankfully they didn't betray me. I actually got to follow-up with that same patient in clinic and during the 2nd post-op visit I removed the sutures that I threw. It was a pretty cool experience. Thankfully the patient didn't have any complications and is happy with their outcome. As a side note, ortho cases are ridiculous lol. Knee and hip replacement surgeries are awesome to watch. Orthos are basically Thor with their giant mallets and osteotomes.
At this point in my career I want more experience doing different types of clinic procedures. I've gotten pretty decent at plantar heel injections, but I have only done one tarsal tunnel injection and haven't gotten a chance to do one in the sinus tarsi or forefoot yet. I also need a lot more experience with wound care, especially debriding ulcers properly. At times I'm unsure how aggressively I'm supposed to debride them. I also have fairly limited experience with partial/total nail avulsions and their associated nerve blocks.
I somehow managed to completely mess up my sleep schedule in the last 24 hours. I'm not quite sure why I'm awake at 4:30am. Time for bed!
Merry Christmas to all!