Today I shadowed Dr. Kuang who is also part of the OHSU department of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. My mentor is out of town today.

I observed a surgery that used a bone graft from the hip and placed it in the bony hard palate on the roof of the mouth. This was done to correct a cleft palate. The patient had had surgery before on that area.

It was kind of hard to observe this surgery because the mouth isn't very big. However, I got to watch one of the doctors getting the bone graft, which is really just taking bone marrow. One part that was interesting was they actually use a sort of hammer and chisel to access the bone marrow at the center of the hip. They were taking the graft form the iliac crest. Once they got through the tough part of the bone, it was weird to see them scraping out the marrow, because I never think about the permeable middle of our bones. It was good to see a surgery that was really different than any of the other surgeries I've seen with Dr. Hansen.

Also one thing that has really interested me everytime I start researching when I get home is the history of medicine. I get stuck on all these wikipedia pages of really famous surgeons from the 1930s, or the history of anesthesia (REALLY cool!). So when I wanted to learn more about electrocautory tools or "Bovies," I found out that the name Bovie, which is what all the surgeons call them, is the guy who invented him. Then I started reading up on Harvey Williams Cushing, who performed the first surgery using this tool that they've used in every surgery I've seen. Also, he was the first person to describe Cushing's syndrome, a disease I've learned about from watching House. If I ever have to write a paper on the history of medicine, it will take me hours and hours because I'll end up reading so much stuff that probably won't be relevant to the actual paper.

Anyway, more fun times at OHSU plastics.