Hero Worship

How do you say thank you to someone who literally saved your life? One of the coolest parts of Peds Surgery has been meeting Dr. Grosfeld, the surgeon who operated on me almost 25 years ago. He's retired now, but he loves to come back and teach so we've been rounding with him once a week. He's a pretty big deal, writing books, meeting with congressmen, just being awesome. I'm glad he was there when I needed him. One of the patients I presented had Type IV jejunal atresia (similar to my duodenal atresia) and as I was describing the surgery she had undergone he suggested that he would have done something different, a tapering enteroplasty instead of a stricuturoplasty. Sure enough the baby had to go back to surgery the next week to get a tapering enteroplasty. Even with highly skilled surgeons, there's experience and then there's EXPERIENCE.

And I think he was happy to meet me...with so many babies who do have questionable long term outcomes, hopefully it's rewarding to meet one who is doing well a quarter century later (damn, I'm getting old). It's been interesting for me to go back to my beginning. I tracked down my medical records and got copies of them off of microfilm. There it is on paper, the beginning of my life. APGARs of 8 and 9. Polyhydramnios, annular pancreas, malrotation. A KUB with the double bubble sign. Textbook. In many ways my surgery was never really a big deal to me, I was out of the hospital after 3 weeks and I don't remember anything. All I had was a scar and the vague knowledge that I owed my life to modern medicine. Now it's more tangible...I can imagine my hospital stay. The daily progress notes, though not computerized, are almost identical to the ones we write today "patient still has high OG output", "continue HAF until feeding". Even the notes from the social worker are similar "Lianna is a very much wanted child", my parents were "appropriately anxious the day of Lianna's surgery" (I always find that comment a little condescending). I also found out they discovered a heart murmur. Who knew? I'm a little sad peds surg is almost over, but the thought of sleeping past 4 am does seem pretty appealing.