All posts by ravenguild08

Medicine

Swiss Surgery

In the past four weeks in my surgery clerkship, I’ve seen several different surgeons operate in their distinct own styles. They’ve ranged from the calm and meticulous vascular surgeon to the loud profane but courteous trauma surgeon to the high-velocity efficient bariatric surgeon. Each was effective in their own methods and I admired them all. However, on Tuesday, I watched Dr. Saldinger, the Chairman of Surgery at NYP Queens, perform two masterful operations, and his surgical style was awe-inspiring. Exacting, precise, and particular. He trained in Basel, Switzerland before coming here, and he is stereotypically Swiss in the best possible way. Watching him operate was the first time I felt like I truly witnessed that mythical surgical precision. Continue reading Swiss Surgery →

Medicine

5:30 am

It’s dark. The air is hot and heavy with moisture. The nine of us are pressed against each other in that small space in silence, resigned to sharing the torpid air conditioning. All of us sleepily wish we weren’t trapped there at such a bizarre time of day.

Yes, it’s the 5:30 am shuttle that takes medical students from Cornell to the NYP Queens hospital a 10-mile drive away. Just starting my surgery clerkship, I’ve only taken it on three mornings, but it really strikes me as a… surreal kind of commute. Continue reading 5:30 am →

Photography

The Treacherous Traverse

Hiking things that are difficult:

  • Completing miles 11-12 of a long hike
  • Carrying a 20- or 30-lb backpack
  • Teetering on jagged edges of unstable rocks
  • Downclimbing a steep rockslide, -2000 ft over 1 mile
  • Finding trail markings in dense night fog with <10 ft visibility

Hiking that is downright treacherous: Doing all of those things simultaneously. Continue reading The Treacherous Traverse →

Medicine

Spectrumy Kids

Child development is, quite utterly, a miracle. A baby is born as wailing little bundle of flesh with nothing in his brain but the instinct to eat and sleep, some primitive reflexes like squinting at bright light, and basic movements like suckling, waving limbs in the air, and crying when hungry or cold or otherwise interested in drawing attention. Two years later, that same boy will be running around, naming objects and speaking in short sentences, following commands and asking questions, playing with other kids, gesturing at his parents, laughing, pouting, defying, engaging. Walk into any preschool or daycare and watch the little kids do their thing. I’ve never really thought of such a scene — chaotic, messy, noisy, and maybe a bit smelly — as a miracle, but it really is. We should marvel at all toddlers learning anything at all, not just the precocious ones.

Because on Monday, I got to observe a classroom-based intervention at the Center for Autism at Westchester and by golly was it jarring. Continue reading Spectrumy Kids →