This last week has been an absolute whirlwind. I started it seeing my first ever brain surgery, finished it seeing several abdominal organs removed from a chest. And topped it all over with the launch of BVDA Talking Teeth (virtual) Tour 2021.
Brain surgery
Even being within a neurology specialist centre the brain though imaged on a nearly daily basis is not commonly operated upon. One of my goals of internship has been to see my first brain surgery. This week I ticked this off. Even though a large part of the skull was opened, it was not possible to see much of the brain itself. There is always a balance between achieving enough access to be able to accomplish what is necessary and causing too much collateral damage.
The chest
This is also an area we don’t get to go so often, being well protected by the ribs it is almost a sacred place as it is difficult to get into. And the contents are essential to keeping the body alive. The barrier between the chest and abdomen, the diaphragm, is a sheet of muscle and fibrous tissue though. Occasionally this barrier is damaged, or malformed. This week for me finished on a high as I got to see something more uncommon. An abdomen missing its normal gastrointestinal organs, as they had herniated through the oesophageal hiatus into the chest.
These were returned to their proper place, and an esophagopexy performed to hopefully keep them there. With a good outcome this was the perfect end to the week.
Talking Teeth (virtual) Tour 2021
As a committee member of the BVDA we have been busy working on getting our evening lecture series covid safe and delivered online. We had our first 2021 live webinar this week which went amazingly well with 200 attendees.
We’ve also managed a website upgrade through the last weekend to give us a better way to manage events. Something I am excited about is having the support there now so that we can host recordings of the live events. For me this is especially as I am passionate about supporting vet students and this allows us to build up a library for vet students to enjoy on their free student membership.
It is scary how much time this can eat up though and considerable evenings and the weekend has been dedicated to this.
Looking forward
I am starting my week of nights tonight. Hopefully this means that I have time to catch up on my epidemiology course. Also I would love to get the second draft of my first publication attempt finished this week.
