Spring Break

This post could actually be called free time, as I really don't have any pressing school obligations. The weekend was spent trying to catch up on all the activities that I haven't been able to to do for quite some time. I started a little early and got a bagpipe lesson in on Thursday night. After a weekend full of tennis, football, and frisbee, I am certainly feeling the deconditioning that has occuring over the past year. On Saturday, I also went to the third meeting of "Foundations of Faith" in Carrollton. It was good.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to spend a few days of spring break shadowing different physicians around Dallas. Yesterday, I worked with an oral maxillofacial surgeon. It was certainly a change from the crazy pace of Parkland and Childrens. We had mostly healthy patients getting dental implants, tooth extraction, and wisdom teeth pulled. Today, I met up with an ophthalmologist in the Dallas area. I watched a few cataract surgeries, a trabeculotomy, a shunt/reservoir placement for glaucoma. I also some some lasik eye surgery. There were a couple of other procedures involving cutting lasers and burning lasers, but I can't remember the names. The surgeries really are something else. I think the patients are awake for sugeries. The shunt and reservoir surgery looked the most complicated. I could barely see the sutures with my naked eye. Watching the surgeon tie knots was impressive. Cataract surgery was interesting too. They make a few cuts around the cornea, go in, cut a hole in the one cell thick capsule layer surrounding the lens, mash up the lens, extract it, and then stick in a new lens. Never once did I see a tremor in the doctor's hands. I was planning on observing and ear, nose and throat doctor tomorrow, but it couldn't be worked out with the hospital where he was going to be working.