Consulting surgery

They looked at me with a mixture of confusion and hurt. Registering that my suggestion was not being received well I countered with additional dates in January explaining that it would be myself available to do their surgery on that day. Immediate relief being displayed by sudden exhalation and sinking back into their chair, they responded with a preference for the January date.

I have a bit of embarrassment about that patient encounter. I am very slowly trying to work my way through the very long lists of patients needing surgeries. Navigating the schedule is tricky as well; trying to protect days for visiting surgical teams, leave time/space/energy in the schedule for emergencies, yet make use of what surgical expertise is available at any given time. So I had offered to that patient an earlier available date for their surgery, but it would be performed by a visiting surgeon. And as I alluded to earlier, that suggestion had not been met well and I immediately countered. But they then chided me for even suggesting allowing a different surgeon to operate. Booking cases for the visiting surgeons is part of my job description here, in this case I just was a little slow on reading the patient's likelihood of acceptance. I'm working on developing new skills I never thought I'd need.

I actually completely understand the patient's reluctance. If I needed surgery, I would also want the surgeon I consult with to be my operative surgeon as well. Hence why the embarrassment, because they called me on a "silly" suggestion, and I couldn't disagree with them. It will be nice, once these lists become a bit more manageable. Hopefully that will coincide with an improvement in my new skills at filling the schedule appropriately for all parties involved.

My office!

I've never had my own office before. Back in Indiana I just took whatever rooms were available, and so I was doing the same here. I moved clinic room every week dependent on which of the other docs were here that day. It was the Honduran docs that finally suggested otherwise. Surgery clinic is here as long as I am here, might as well have an office for it!

I'm actually really excited about this!

Much Love.