Grand Reunion of PGIs

Yesterday, The Dep't of Surgery of the Riverside Medical Center sponsored a Basic Surgical Workshop for all PGIs and Junior Interns. I was fortunately permitted to join the workshop despite my On Duty status so at around 1 pm, the BOLMSH PGIs went to the 2nd Floor Pharmacy Building of RMC and joined the rest of the PGIs from other hospitals. It was an opportunity for us to reunite with former med school classmates who are doing their internship in other hospitals. Present were PGIs from CLMMRH (our alma mater), Sanitarium Hospital, Doctor's Hospital and Riverside Medical Center.

It was basically a fun workshop. Lectures on sutures and needles and clinical application of suturing were given by former mentors and consultants during our med school days. After the lectures, snacks were given out and practical workshops were conducted. It was like a refresher's course of what we went through during our JI days. We reviewed how to do hand tying and perform various techniques in suturing (e.g. simple interrrupted, continuous, vertical mattress, horizontal mattress, etc.) We practiced our skills on a chunk of pork which was rumored to have been served as our dinner after the workshop.

The hand tying was kind of difficult at first and it has always been a waterloo for me. However, step-by-step instructional videos were flashed on the big screen which guided us on how to do proper and correct hand tying. In the middle of all these, we managed to converse with our former classmates and updated each other with the recent happenings.

The workshop ended with a lecture on pain and the use of COX inihibitors. It was perhaps the most entertaining lecture during that event. Dr. Coruña presented nice animations of the physiology of pain and how certain analgesics interfere in this pathway thereby modulating pain. Dinner was served at the 6th floor at the Lounge.

I had to run back to the hospital at around 7 p.m. since I was on duty. I only had 4 admissions but I had a stat ex lap done at around 4 a.m. on a patient who had ruptured appendicitis. It was perhaps the longest appendectomy I ever had. I entered the OR at around 4 a.m. and left at around 7:00 a.m. just in time for my breakfast. I was awake since 12:30 a.m. I only had 2 hours sleep and I was to report a surgical case conference later that afternoon.

It was perhaps the most difficult appendectomy I have ever seen. The tip of the appendix was ruptured, was retrocecal, subhepatic in location and was adhering to the serosa of the ascending colon. At first glance, it may appear as a perforated colon. But further investigation revealed a ruptured appendicitis only.

I slept from 7:30 a.m. up to 11:15 a.m., prepared for my reporting which was 1:30 p.m. and spent the rest of the afternoon watching dvds with fellow PGIs in the on-call room. This week is our last week of being Surgical PGIs. Next week, I will be rotating in the Dept. of Pediatrics.