Breathe in, Breathe out

I am now 4 weeks into my 3rdyear and I think I saw the coolest thing ever on Friday. A woman on our service had a huge tumor in her lung that was taking up about 90% of her lung. So, the cardiothoracic surgeon was called in and she was sent off to surgery. I got a page from my resident asking if I would like to go watch...I practically sprinted through the hospital to meet her. I was so excited! When I got to the surgery, they had already opened up her rib cage on one side and her skin was stretched WAY out and the muscle had been cut between two of her ribs to spread them out. They were in the process of cutting off all of the blood supply to the lung. Then, they proceeded to remove the whole lung. It was amazing! After they removed the lung, I could see the heart beating. I don't think it was until I saw the heart that I realized that this was nothing like a cadaver; this was a real live person that they had just taken a whole lung out of! WOW! Then, they began to stitch her up. I think they had about five layers of stitches they had to do. They started by wiring the ribs back together. Then, they started stitching all of the subcutaneous layers and finally the skin. It was incredible. I think that one other thing that amazed me about this surgery is that someone without one half of their breathing capacity can live just fine. Our bodies are so incredibly resilient!

Well, that was my excitement for the week! I'm sorry I haven't been very good about keeping in touch...life has been a little crazy!