Life as a medical student #19 My Shaking Hands: Suturing for the first time

The operating theatre with its bright lights, sharp steel and demanding scrub nurses is a land of mystery for most medical students. Having seen so many operations done (from far corner of the room, of course), I had never stitched up an actual person. Ironically, my first chance of sewing up an incision happened when I was at Tzu Chi Hospital in Taiwan. It was a reconstructive surgery after resection of retromolar trigone cancer. Doctor Kang and Doctor Weng had removed the anterolateral thigh (ALT) flap and was now beginning to re-connect blood vessels at the neck.

''Why don't you sew up the site on the leg where we harvested the flap?'' Doctor Weng said.

I was a bit startled, but I nodded. Looking down at the patient's leg, there was a 4-inch incision to sew up. It wasn't too deep. Probably just need a single layer of simple interrupted suture. Very quickly the nurse handed me a forceps, a needle-holder and a length of 3.0 nylon. I tried to make myself comfortable with the instruments like how I used to practice in classes, and concentrate on the incision in front of me. The first few stitches took me an eternity to put in - using the forceps my left hand grasped and everted the skin edge slightly, my right hand pronated and supinated to allow the needle to pierce the skin - I don't know why but that particular moment made my hands tremble a little. While taking a deep breath in, I imitated how the surgeons normally wrap the suture around the needle holder to form the loop, and then tie the knot. And finally cut the suture leaving a 5mm tail. That's my first knot! I looked up and exchanged glances with Doctor Weng. He seemed satisfied. With Doctor Weng continue guiding me, I began suturing with more confidence.

Slowly, but more and more smoothly.

Skin pads, banana skin, orange peels? Nothing beats suturing a live patient. I can now suture better. Really.

Life as a medical student #4 Sweet Revenge

From left: Abby, Chern Meng and I

Have you ever met someone that just weren't very nice to you? It wasn't because of anything you did - or maybe it was - but they just weren't very kind or friendly. I remember writing about how I embarrassed myself in front of my supervisor and how it made me think and reflect on my own performance. (You can read about it here) After some time, I realized there were only two possibilities - either I really performed badly or he was trying to pick on me. I wish it was the first one. Worst comes to worst, I have to be the type of incompetent people who know that I am not good, instead of those who are clueless about their incompetence. It is never too late to learn. 

Last Friday, we ended our Student Selected Component (SSC) by having oral presentation in university in front of the examiners, and most importantly - in front of my supervisor. It was a day I have long anticipated, I probably secretly hoping to prove him wrong or something. So of course I made sufficient preparation. We rehearsed the presentation for countless times, we even colour coded our outfits. But most importantly, I was all ready to present to everyone what we have done in the past six weeks. Because from the very beginning, I am proud of what my SSC is all about and am really glad that I was given the opportunity to be a part of the team. (Will be posting here about my 6 weeks attachment at Yayasan Chow Kit soon)

The presentation turned out pretty good, the response from the floor was out of my expectation. People were impressed by the findings and how it would benefit the street children. One of the lecturers from Dublin asked if we would like to publish our papers. I mean, what an honour! Publishing papers is the dream of every researcher. To receive such feedback is the best one could ever get.

I wish it was from my supervisor though. He didn't make any comment after our presentation. No dramas like patting on my shoulder saying ''Well done'' or ''Keep up the good work''. But nah it's okay. Maybe my supervisor is just cool like that.

I dip my fist in sugar before I punch my enemies in the face. Sweet, Sweet Revenge.