1st week

I also want to thank everyone who made this possible, particularly Belinda, Mitch, Keigo, Dr. Freyer and Dr. Wong. The first week has been very eventful and exciting. I met my mentor, Dr. Theodore Schwartz from Neurosurgery, on Tuesday and immediately realized how much more hectic and busy hospital life is. I got to join him on his clinical day and two main things really impressed me there. First of all the contrast of what is going on behind the scenes at a doctors office to what my experiences have been going to a doctor. As a patient you walk in and (for the most part) everybody is very friendly and patient with you, while in the back everything is streamlined to work at highest efficiency. It seems like every second is of immense value, and I actually had a hard time walking as fast as my mentor. When I did catch up with him to see a patient, the atmosphere changes in an instant. Suddenly, it is relaxed, appearing to have lots of time, personal, and yet somehow highly efficient. That day we mainly saw patients where Dr. Schwartz's recommendation was to go for surgery and obviously these patients are initially highly reluctant and simply just afraid of surgery, yet he manages in a very quick time to explain rationally why surgery is the best option for them and why he recommends it and within 5-10 minutes most had agreed and accepted it. Later that day I got to sit in on the Neurosurgery department discussing cases where the surgeon wanted a second opinion from others before deciding on a therapeutic plan which was highly interesting. I think other departments may have these meetings weekly as well and I need to figure out the schedule for them and can only recommend these meetings to everyone.
The next day I got to meet his lab which was very exciting as they actually have done experiments using new optical instruments in the surgical room and it gives me hope that I might see my PhD project used in a surgery room at some point in the not too distant future.
Most of Thursday was spent watching surgeries. After some initial trouble getting scrubs and getting into the surgery room (a hospital ID should be all it takes from what I know now). These were very interesting and I saw two tumor resections in the brain (through a craniotomy) and one repair of a spinal fluid leakage operated endoscopically through the nose. I saw a surgery before, but am always fascinated by how well the OR organization and team work together. I also discovered that if you want info during the surgery, the anesthesiologists are an amazing source as they seem to know most kinds of procedures very well and actually have some time to talk during the surgery. I am very excited about this summer immersion and about spending more time in the hospital. Thanks again to everyone who made it possible.