anna in med school

I scrubbed into my first surgery today.  Lucky for me, it was one of those 10-hour ones.  I loved every minute…except when I had to interrupt the surgeon while I was retracting the abdominal wall to ask if I could be excused.  Four hours of burning flesh, the scent just kind of hit me and, as I started to sweat profusely, I feared I might vomit inside of the body cavity.  Surgeons are pretty serious about maintaining a sterile field.