Time really does fly. It’s the last week of posting for all of us at St. John’s. I’m currently doing one week of posting with the plastic surgery team. My impression of plastic surgery (before I joined the team) was totally skewed by nip/tuck. The show portrayed it to be a field all about beauty and cosmesis. But it’s not all like that at all, at least here in India, don’t know much about other countries. It kind of overlaps with the orthopedic field in Singapore. They deal with the usual burns, rhinoplasty etc. But they also deal with things like hand injuries which would have been in the hand surgery department in Singapore under ortho. They also do maxillofacial injuries which they have tones of because of the numerous road traffic accidents around.
I went to watch some surgeries yesterday and it has been one of the most exciting experience in India. Started early in the morning with a repair of the tragus of the ear due to some deformity. Not terrible exciting…but wait. There’s more to come. Second op was open reduction internal fixation of a fractured mandible. They started by putting multiple wires between the teeth and did something like braces which screwed the teeth together. In the midst of everything, it kinda looked like a horror movie because of all the wires sticking out of the mouth. Hard to explain in words.. Anyway, the highlight of the day was this patient with 30% burns all over her face and upper body. They did a surgery called tangential excision. Sounds quite benign right? WRONG! They use this instrument that looks and behaves a lot like the potato-skin peeler. And they peeled the burnt skin layer by layer. It was quite bloody with the blood dripping down the sheets all over the floor. Normally they would have done skin grafting at the same operation but the patient presented too late so infection has already set in. They will be doing the skin graft tomorrow, quite excited to watch it. It’s quite sad looking at burns patients because they must be in lots of pain and the road to recovery is very very very long. All the skin grafting, skin peeling and physiotherapy. Not to mention the scars.
All of us will be going to kerala for a week with a german elective student, manuel. Hmm..dunnoe how to spell his name. Anyway, hope it’ll be fun. It’s the monsoon season already so there’s lots of rain with the regular lightning and thunder and the fallen trees on the road. Hope it won’t rain so much in Kerala otherwise all our plans will be ruined. And after that, going home soon i am! Super duper excited. Can't wait to sleep in the comfort of my bed. Dumping my clothes to my maid to wash...haha...sorry tess. And waiting for food to be served to me. Watching tv in my PJS. And eating all the buffets!!
And last but definately not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOAN! hope you like the birthday card that me and von sent you.
Don't think i'll be blogging anymore in india. Will continue when i'm back in singapore. See ya guys soon!
is turning from blue to brown and damp
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