Day 7: The second day of the weekend turned into a light hike with snorkeling in the Jack and Isaac Bay (featured picture above). The Sunday was spent with Stefán and Abbie with relaxing in the sand and cracking jokes with Dr. Moorman. We drove to the most eastern point of the United States that is located on the far side of St. Croix. Overall, the beginning of week two was a great trip on the island’s coast.
Day 8: The early morning went by quickly with a surgery in the OR at the hospital. A woman had a 6 cm chin abscess that was making her whole bottom half of her face swollen. Dr. Moorman made a 2 cm incision and started pushing all around the chin to make the pus and blood flow from her face. Dr. Moorman cleaned out the wound and stitched her up. The rest of the day was spent at the office seeing postoperative patients, the woman from the breast reduction and the facial patient were both recovering great from their surgeries last week. Although Abbie, Andreas and I didn’t do much that Monday it was still interesting in seeing how the body heals itself after a cosmetic surgery.
Day 9: As the usual Tuesday office day rolled around, the hectic running didn’t cease from last week. Seeing over 30 patients in 7 hour time period had Dr. Moorman scurrying room to room and patient to patient. Abbie, Hailey ( Dr. Moorman’s secretary) and I brought patients back, exchanged paperwork and shadowed Dr. Moorman while he helped his patients. The busiest day of the week resulted in a relaxing night for Abbie and me as we did face masks and read in the apartment.
Day 10: The previous night a 20 year old man got into a drunk driving accident and fractured his mandible in two places, under the left molar and the right angle of his jaw. The two hour surgery went by quickly and Andreas got to scrub in and assist Dr. Moorman for that surgery. As Abbie and I watched behind Dr. Moorman, he screwed in a metal plate to the left molar fracture and then wired his mouth shut. The whole procedure lasted about three hours, but from watching Dr. Moorman screw into the jaw and watching him wire the mouth made it seem like it lasted 20 minutes. After getting all the paperwork done and checking in on the patient, Abbie, Dr. Moorman and I walked out of the hospital at 7:00 pm after being there for six hours. Abbie and I got home and crashed around 9:00 making it the earliest we’ve went to bed the whole internship.
Day 11: The next Thursday was even crazier than the last with multiple skin lesion removals and more Botox and juvederm injections. All the skin lesions that were removed looked to be cancerous due to their growing shapes and colors. Skin cancer is so common here for both darker and lighter skin tones because of the sun’s intensity. Each removal is started with numbing the area with one percent lidocaine with epinephrine to numb and try to reduce bleeding around the lesion. Then, a number 15 scalpel is used to remove the lesion and then they are stitched up. Overall, the day by quickly and Abbie and I prepared for the three surgeries we would be watching tomorrow at the Plesson Surgical Center.
Day 12: We started our Friday at Plesson around 9:00 am with our scrubs on and face masks tied, ready to watch the first surgery of the day. The first surgery was the removal of a recurrent ventral incisional hernia that still had the previous sutures from the last time it was removed, that was the longest surgery of the day. A hernia is a bulge that occurs when an organ pushes through an opening of a muscle and can cause discomfort or pain. The hernia was removed then a surgical mesh was attached to keep the hernia from growing back. The next two procedures were quick and simple; the next was the removal was mass in the left shoulder (on right) and the second was the removal of a small umbilical hernia. We ended the work day around 3:00 and went home to watched scary movies upstairs with Stefán.
Day 13: Abbie and I got up around 10:30, made breakfast and packed our backpacks for a beach/ shopping day in town. Dr. Moorman, Stefán, Abbie and I made our way into the town around 12:00 and we toured the Fort Christiansvaern that was built in 1738 by the French soldiers to keep out invaders of the island. We toured through the Fort, made our way through the boardwalk and took the ferry to the beach where we spent hours snorkeling and relaxing in the water. Abbie and I bought some souvenirs and headed home to watch more scary movies with Stefán and Dr. Moorman. The week went by quickly and I’m so excited to see what this next one brings for the internship!
You amaze me!! Love you bunches!!