Hello! My name is Avery Wright. This is my third week of studying Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery under Dr. Gregory Moorman on Saint Croix.
Sunday July 11th was originally supposed to be a rest day. A couple of Dr. Moorman’s other interns and myself went to The Buccaneer Hotel to relax on their public beach. We spent the whole day soaking up Vitamin D and relaxing on the beach. Sunday was not a very exciting day, but Monday sure was.
Monday July 12th my alarm went off at 5:45 AM. Dr. Moorman, the other interns, and myself left the house at around 6:15 to go take a COVID-19 test. To intern at Gov Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center here in Saint Croix we must have a negative COVID-19 test. After the test we went back home to rest and eat breakfast while we waited for our results. At around 8:00 AM our results came back, and they were all negative. We left the house again at 9:00 AM to head back to Gov Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center to orientate. After turning in my immunization record, negative COVID-19 test, and negative TB skin test I signed a HIPAA documentation form. Once all the paperwork was completed my picture was taken for my Volunteer identification badge (as seen above), and then Dr. Moorman gave us a tour of the hospital. He showed us where the Operating Rooms were located, the Emergency Room, Intensive Care Unit, and other important locations in the hospital. We arrived back home at about 10:30 AM, and we planned to spend the rest of the day relaxing. However, at 7:30 PM Dr. Moorman was called into the Emergency Room because a patient had been bit by a dog on their forearm. Luckily the patient did not have to go into the OR. Dr. Moorman had to perform deep sutures to stitch the muscle back together. Then he did superficial sutures to stitch the wound semi-closed in order to allow leakage to flow out of the wound. Once the procedure was finished, Dr. Moorman then showed us how to properly document the case, and write prescriptions. At 9:30 PM we left the hospital and had a typical Medical School student dinner, Ramen Noodles. Dr. Moorman is on call for the ER 24/7, so we had to leave our phone volume all the way up that night in case. Thankfully, Dr. Moorman was never called in, and we all could rest.
Tuesday July 13th was an office day for Dr. Moorman. We arrived at the office at 8:30 AM, and saw the first patient at 9:00 AM. He saw many consultation patients, post-operative patients, and follow-up visits. Some of the post-operative patients he saw today were from the surgeries we observed last week. Today we saw both patients from the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome surgeries, and the patient from the Face Lift surgery. At 5:15 PM we left the office and went back home. Dr. Moorman’s oldest son was teaching us interns how to play Texas hold ’em when Dr. Moorman walked into the room. He said that a patient had sliced two of their fingers, and that we might have to leave for the ER. However, a Resident decided to take on the task, so we were able to play a few rounds of cards, and catch up on sleep for another office day tomorrow.
Wednesday July 14th was another office day, but it was an office day full of procedures. From 9:30 AM till 5:00 PM we watched Dr. Moorman remove foreign bodies, skin lesions, and sutures. We also were able to observe Dr. Moorman as he performed a Blepharoplasty. A Blepharoplasty is a procedure that removes excess skin, fat, and muscle from the upper and/or lower eyelids to help with vision. The images above are the left and right upper eyelids. Each lesion was 4.8 cm in length. The Blepharoplasty was the last procedure of the day, so after Dr. Moorman finished, we went home and spent the evening watching movies and baking cookies.
Thursday July 15th we left the house at 8:45 AM for another office day at Dr. Moorman’s Aesthetic Center. However, this office day was a cosmetic day because all Dr. Moorman had scheduled patients wanting botox and juvederm. Botox is a cosmetic procedure that uses the drug Botulinum toxin. Botox prevents patients from forming wrinkles because Botulinum toxin temporarily paralyzes their facial muscles. If a patient is wanting to prevent the forehead wrinkles they receive when lifting their eyebrows, then botox will be injected in their frontalis muscle, and they will not be able to lift their eyebrows for a few months which prevents the forehead wrinkles from forming. Juvederm on the other hand is a filler rather than a relaxer like botox. Juvederm is a dermal filler with hyaluronic acid that fills the grooves of the wrinkles to temporarily prevent wrinkle lines. Above is a photo of a drawing Dr. Moorman drew to show us interns the different places where you can insert botox and juvederm, and the places where you should not. As a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Dr. Moorman understands that cosmetic days can be very repetitive since all he is doing is either injecting botox or juvederm. At around noon Dr. Moorman released us for the day. We met his wife Gabriella and their oldest son at the Marina, and they took us interns to Buck Island. We arrived home around 7:30 PM, and we were all exhausted from the sunlight. By 8:30 PM we were all in bed resting up for the day tomorrow.
Friday July 16th Dr. Moorman had a breast reduction surgery scheduled at Plessen Medical Center. He started the surgery at around 10:00 in the morning, and he finished sometime around 2:00 PM. The breast reduction case today was much larger than the case we observed the first week I was here. Dr. Moorman removed about two pounds of breast tissue and fat from each breast. That is a total of four pounds removed for the patient. Even though four pounds does not seem like much, imagine carrying two 2 pound dumbbells around your neck for a majority of your life, and then suddenly getting them removed. Not only does a breast reduction help with raising the patient’s confidence, but it also helps physically to prevent back pain and other injuries. After the breast reduction surgery we got lunch at La Reine Chicken Shack, which is Martha Stewart’s favorite restaurant on the island, and then we interns went out to Buck Island with Dr. Moorman’s oldest son to watch the sunset. Once we got home we all went straight to bed.
Saturday July 17th Dr. Moorman had scheduled for us interns and his youngest daughter to go parasailing at 10:30 AM. However, when we arrived at the parasailing location we learned that the boat had been broken for a week, and all parasailing adventures were canceled. Luckily Dr. Moorman’s oldest son was going out to Buck Island for the day, so he took us with him. Above is a photo of Buck Island from today. We spent the whole day swimming in the blue ocean water, walking on the beach, and exploring Buck Island. Two thirds of Buck Island is surrounded by an Elkhorn coral barrier reef, which is an ecosystem for over 250 fish species and other marine wildlife such as eagle rays. The reef is also home to Nurse sharks, Lemon sharks, and baby Blacktip reef sharks and Whitetip reef sharks. While we were exploring Buck Island we walked by the large portion of Elkhorn coral, and we actually saw a baby shark. Although the baby shark was moving fast and blending in with the coral, I did not see a black tip on its dorsal fin, so I think we saw a baby Whitetip reef shark. After seeing the baby shark we quickly swam back to the boat and talked about our experience. We spent the rest of the day carefully observing the water around us. Once we arrived home we sat down to dinner and spent the night watching movies.
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