Surgery

So I guess that it is finally my turn to write. I have been busy this last month doing surgery at a place called Waukesha Memorial Hospital. On a normal day I would get there between 6:00 and 6:30am to “round” on my patients. This includes looking at their chart and reading the notes left by others since the last time I had seen the patient, looking up labs and vitals (temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, etc.) in the computer, and then examining the patient to see how they were doing and writing a progress note. Most mornings we had a meeting with one of the doctors around 7:00am to go over random surgical topics. And then it was off to the operating room throughout the rest of the day. Most days we each helped with 2-3 surgeries. Most of the patients came in through an area called Day Surgery, so we would go over there beforehand and meet the patient and then do a pre-op history and physical exam. Then we wait for the patient to be taken back to the operating room and go to assist the nurses in getting them ready for surgery.

The surgeries could last from one to several hours, depending on what it was. I saw several laparoscopic (with a video scope) gallbladder removals; breast biopsies/lumpectomies for cancer; carotid artery surgery to open up a clogged artery; aneurysm repairs; removal of small and large intestine due to tumors/cancer; removal of a spleen, removal of a thyroid; a toe amputation; and many others. The longest surgery I was in was one called a Whipple, which is a surgery used on a person with pancreatic cancer. The area of the pancreas with tumor is removed, along with the surrounding small intestine; then the stomach, outlets from the liver, pancreas, and small intestine all have to be hooked back together. That surgery took 5 ½ hours – my legs were so tired by the end of that one. I took 5 call days during the month. Once we were done with the surgeries of the day, we did home call, where we would be called back in if the doctor needed our help. I wasn’t ever called back in, though I did end up staying late on a few of my call days before getting home. Overall, though, this month was a lot nicer that I would have expected for a surgery rotation.

As I watch these surgeries, I am amazed by the complexity of the human body, and yet how it works and functions so nicely – it has been an added testimony to me that our bodies are divine creations of our Heavenly Father. I am also continually reminded of how blessed I am to have a family that is healthy and well.

Yesterday we were able to go to the temple and do some sealings for several of Steph’s direct ancestors (including some third great-grandparents and fourth great-grandparents). I took the car in that morning for what I thought was going to be a simple oil change that turned into the back brakes having to be replaced, but at least the car is safe now. There was an accident on the freeway on the way down to the temple that put us quite behind the time we had scheduled to get there, but everything turned out fine, and we had a wonderful experience. The spirit is so strong in the temple, and there is just a feeling of peace and happiness that I feel every time I go. I love it there.

I got an email this week from Dr. Flores, who I did a summer research project with a few years ago, saying that our paper we had submitted is about ready for publication, and he included proofs of the article pages for us to review one last time before final print. The paper should be published in August, so I’ll let you know more about it then, but we were so excited to hear of the progress. I am also working on a case report right now with a pediatric dermatologist, Dr. Lyon. We are just in the rough draft stages of the report, but it looks good so far.

We have had beautiful weather here this past week and have enjoyed playing outside with the kids. Steph was able to take them to the zoo and is enjoying here year-long pass. We went to a end of the year choir barbeque at a park on Friday night to just have fun with the others. We took our grill and roasted up some hotdogs and then had fun talking and playing on the playground. Then we had some friends over for games afterwards.

Kolby continues to love school and learn new things each week. He is almost done with this semester and then will have the summer off before starting back up. He is so good with his numbers and colors and is always pointing things out to us. Steph put together a chore chart for Kolby and Eli of things they can do each day to help her in the house, and then if they do all their chores for a week, they get a special prize at the end of the week. They love helping out around the house.

We are told by Eli’s teachers that he is one of the best kids in his nursery class. He loves to play, he is nice to the other kids, and he loves to help clean up. Steph says that he is just a little fish now in his swimming class and loves to go under the water.

And Camden just got his first tooth today!! It is his front bottom left one. He has been a little fussy this week, so that would probably explain why. He sure loves playing in his jumper and he actually started crawling for the first time tonight!

Oh, and Stephanie got a new calling at church this morning. She will be a visiting teaching district coordinator, and she thinks that will be a good calling.

We hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day. I am starting trauma surgery tomorrow and so have to be there to help out, as this holiday is one of the busier for the emergency room. I’ll let you know what that is like in future posts.