I woke up at four am, only having three hours of sleep. I was granted first hand experience of shadowing an orthopedic surgeon. I don’t know if it was pure excitement or rather nervousness from the possibility of fainting at the first site of blood. I did not know what to expect, and that’s joy of innocence. Prior to walking into the OR, I was guided to scrubs and eventually had to put on a surgical cap and booties. I was unaware of the sheer difficulty of putting on these so called “booties” until now. With my cap halfway covering my hair and wobbling on one foot to squeeze on a piece of fabric to cover my shoe, I eventually sterilized my arms and proceeded to the OR. I didn’t know what was more shocking, the horrid yet comforting smell of cleanliness or tidy process of providing proper cleaning prior to the first surgery. Everyone had a role, and well I, I was sitting on a circular stool sweating through my scrubs. The sanitation process felt like a couple of hours, and finally people began to gown up. The anesthesiologist was on his way, and was already pre occupied with paperwork—perhaps a book too. After a couple of hours from entering the premises, the surgeon finally arrived and like an artist being completely indwelled into his craft he began to work. This surgeon emphasized the speed of the surgery to prevent further and longer recovery times. These ACL surgeries often happened around ten times year in this facility and I was lucky enough to witness it. The cadaver’s tendon was ready, and thawed out for surgery. A few holes into the knee, 45 minutes, and what seemed to be like 100 instruments the surgery was eventually complete. I was amazed. Words can’t describe the shock value of what I experienced. It was a sense of belonging allowing me to recognize what I was finally passionate about. My brain was exhausted after 9 hours of soaking up constant information from an environment I have never been around. I learned a lot about the power of pure listening and watching. Even though my grades recently have not been the greatest, and everything around me and the world seeming to fall apart, it felt like everything stopped for once. But hey, I guess it’s like surgery. “Don’t be afraid of blood loss, it stops eventually.”
Robert Quiroz 