A Moment

 I started an orthopedic surgery rotation this week.

Besides the shock of being back in the hospital

with 5am wake up calls

and 13 hour days of surgery,

it's been interesting

to see 

just how those ol' hips and knees are replaced.

Also I've decided that if I become a psychiatrist,

I still need to know:

1) how to deliver a baby

2) what to do in case of a heart attack

and 

3) how to examine injuries.

Because there will inevitably

be the times when someone asks,

"Is there a doctor here?"

And I'm gonna need to 

have a little more in my toolkit

than

"How does that [baby coming out/crushing chest pain/bone sticking out of your leg] make you feel?"

That said,

yesterday I had a moment

that hit me with a lot more

than 

just the knowledge of bones and ligaments.

The attending physician

had left the resident, scrub nurse, and I

to finish up

a repair of an Achilles tendon rupture.

As the resident sewed the end of the tendon together,

I retracted,

and the scrub nurse cut the sutures,

we talked about 

how we got where we were,

our families,

and our weekend plans.

And in that moment,

I realized that we were all 20-something people,

working in unison,

with no hierarchy, 

approaching each other as fellow 20-somethings 

with lives outside of this moment,

real people,

treating each other with respect and kindness,

each with something to contribute to this moment

of helping 

another 20-something with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

And then I looked around

and saw that the 

anesthesiologist was also a resident, likely in his 20's,

as was the circulating nurse.

And for some reason,

it really hit me,

that we weren't just students/residents/assitants

doing what the attending physician told us to

under supervision,

we were

capable

professionals

in charge of helping this human being.

And in 3 months,

I will be a physician.

The face of medicine is changing.

And my little heart 

just swelled with pride

in this moment,

thinking that if the future of medicine looks like 

this little team,

full of kindness, realness, and working together, 

it looks pretty damn good.

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Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art.

It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters;

it deals with the very processes of life,

which must be understood before they may be guided.

-Paracelsus