Personal Narrative-Day Surgery Department

What makes a Neurosurgeon? The money? The type of houses they get to live in? The places they get to go? The car they drive? Sure it could be all of those things. But what really makes a Neurosurgeon? Is it ambition? Is it courage? Is it the aspiration to save lives? Is it the reaction they get after a successful operation? Or is it a dream that they have dreamt of becoming a Neurosurgeon? Well, it's all of those things. I’ve dreamt of becoming a Neurosurgeon since I was in 6th grade. Ambition is one of my traits. I’ve always had the aspiration to help others, but to save lives that’s another level I want to achieve. The reaction I get when I do something great internally is something that I cannot explain. That’s a Neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeons are specialized physicians and their specialty is doing surgery on the Nervous System. Let’s look more in depth at becoming a Neurosurgeon.

“The Human Brain”, by myPerspectives, is an informative article that claims that the brain is a complex organ that is truly impressive. The brain is a key part of the central nervous system, that controls the entire body’s activities, to simple things such as breathing. These actions are fired through neurons, that quickly travel through the spinal cord. Surprisingly, the brain transmits these messages at an unimaginable rate, at 150 miles per hour, through 85 billion cells, called neurons. These neurons can form up to 10,000 synapses, or connections to each other. By itself, the brain can create billions of synapses, which change the structure of the brain every time new information is learned. However, there is still much that scientists

It’s not worth dedicating your entire young adult life to medicine only to quit afterwards. Not only is it a waste of your own time but also a waste of money and resources. Dr. Ibrahim Hussain, MD illustrates this like no other. Dr. Hussain came in and gave an amazing presentation about his journey in medicine. Co-hosted by AED, AMSA, and the HPO, this event had a great turn out with undergrads, graduate students, and even professors/deans in attendance. As a neurosurgery resident at Weill Cornell Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Hussain shared his stories from a pre-med in Rutgers to a busy surgeon at the hospital. His talk was very inspirational as he started out in Rutgers with extremely low grades and had lost motivation for medicine. After he talked to many people and shadowed many doctors, he was able to lift himself up and excel for the rest of college, getting accepted into NJMS where he got his MD. He was then able to get into Cornell for the coveted neurosurgery residency and has been there since, saving countless patients' lives. He works countless hours and feels such privilege to help all these people. He does not feel it is a chore to go to a medical conference, read medical literature or remain updated on medical topics. He also brought pictures from his surgeries, from the more complicated brain tumor removal to the simpler appendectomy or cholecystectomy. This was my favorite presentation because it combined some of

I care for a patient’s well-being by gathering their vitals, performing point of care tasks like checking their blood glucose levels, phlebotomy, transporting them, and anything else that might be needed to ensure wellness. This summer, I have also been shadowing several neurosurgeries, the first of which was a complete cervical disc replacement. Then, I was able to shadow a lumbar fusion, cranial incision, and post-op follow up for issues like occipital neuralgia. This opportunity gave me insight into how the surgical world of medicine runs, and it allowed me the opportunity to ask any pertinent questions about the career, and the daily routine in general. These meaningful experiences have helped me become a more well-rounded person in general. They have also taught me to take a more individualized approach to medicine, which has helped to prioritize patients’ specific needs, while keeping an even-keeled and friendly mindset with them as well. Even though there may be a large number of people with similar ailments, their medical, social, and mental statuses are all going to vary. Thus far, I have been able to use what I have learned to create a more conducive healthcare environment, which I believe promotes the patient’s healing

I could feel the smoldering hot sun on my shoulders as I approached the long jump runway. It was my third and final jump for trials, the deciding factor on whether I made it to the finals. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and took off! As I sprung off the board, I knew it was going to be a great jump. Suddenly, I landed and sensed an unbearable pain filled with screaming agony as I rolled in the sand. It was perhaps the most catastrophic and painful athletic injury I have ever experienced. As I looked up, things seemed to be moving in slow motion as my coach came running in. I received the most shocking news two days later that I had ruptured my ACL. Although I did not know it at the moment, this injury was going to have the greatest impact on my life that anything ever has.

In my junior year in college, I realized that an engineering career will not be as challenging of a trail as medicine. From very early on in my anatomy cadaver labs, I always had the impression that I would enjoy a surgical profession, but this decision for surgery did not shape until the third and fourth year of my clinical clerkships. During one of my surgery clerkships in Atlanta, I observed a young male with necrotizing fasciitis who got admitted in a critical condition. My attending was initially hopeless, but fortunately after four weeks in the ICU and a few surgeries, he survived and got transferred to the floors. I paid full attention to how Dr. Mayor was refining his strategic methods to save his patient’s life. He was consulting a group of diverse physicians from various departments, and collaborating many assessments into his plans.

When I was younger, my doctor directed me to have surgery to remove a cyst on my arm. Hearing the word surgery, I instantly became anxious. However, I remember my nurse who always reassured me through every step of the way, and before I knew it, I awoke in the PACU lying in bed. My nurse constantly checked on the tubes leading into my arm, writing down any necessary statistics. That is what intrigued me the most at the time: she knew what all those numbers, lines, and symbols meant. Looking around, I did not understand how she knew or why there were so many foreign objects around me. Ever since my surgery, the thought about pursuing a medical career resonated in my thoughts. My thoughts formed my desire to interact and learn about the medical

I never thought I would be laying on an operating table at the age of 15. I had been dealing with knee pain for over 2 years so I finally agreed to surgery. This was my first major surgery and in order to tell this story, I have to go back to the beginning.

The summer before second grade I hit my head against the padded seat of a bumper car. I started bawling even though I hadn't hit my head that hard. This was the first warning sign.

I joined a research lab to study the aging brain. I spent time with our neurosurgery team at grand rounds and shadowed them in the OR. Rotating on service with them taught me about the wide breadth of surgical and clinical care in neurosurgery. Various manifestations of neurological disease and their surgical treatments left me in awe. Anything can be enjoyable if it is easy and everything goes well. However, it was the nights when we were presented with an unending stream of critical patients and the unrelenting work that helped me realize my love and enjoyment of neurosurgery. Out of all of the specialties, neurosurgery was the one that I felt encompassed medicine and humanity in its most complete form. After all, the nervous system is what makes us who we are. Thus, to understand it and be a part of a team who treated it was a great gift and

Today is the last day of our clinicals in the facility, and I would say that from the first day up to today I have learned so much and grown so much as a student nurse. I remember that very first day of clinical, I had no clue on what to expect and what to do, and I was so nervous that I would made mistakes. However, as I became more exposed to the clinical, I gained more confidence on doing things, applied the concept I learn during the class into practice, and gradually improved my communication skills with the residents. Today, I was able to learn about certain medications by going through the chart and by the help of our instructor. I learned how the medications work to treat and manage particular diseases. Also, I was able to creatively

For as long as I can remember, my mother has been a loving and caring person. But, also for that time, she was constantly in chronic pain. Even when she could barely get out of bed, she would put up her best foot and still care for me and my little sister. But, in the last couple of years, this has lead to surgery after surgery. Usually with little to no results (because she's diabetic, most of the time her body rejects whatever was put in to help her).

A. attention getter: Your body comprises copious quantities of nervous system cells referred to as neurons. This numerous supply of them can be up to trillions, where about 100 billion inhibit the brain itself. “The number of ways information travels in the human brain is greater than the number of stars in the universe” conveys faculty.washington.edu. Neurons are divergent from other

The brain is singlehandedly the human organ that leaves developmental biologists dumbfounded at its constant timely adaptability. It has computer programmers and electrical engineers scratching their heads at its in-built circuitry and integrative firing. It amazes artists and philosophers by being the source of the world’s creativity and thought-provoking ideas. But most notably, it leaves the present-day neuroscientist edgy and impatient to discover more of the answers embedded deep within its neurons, synapses, ganglia, and nerves. However, it must be mentioned here that this incitement does not arise from simply the mere fascination to gain further knowledge regarding the fundamentals of the healthy brain. This fascination is mixed with fear. Current funding and lack of proper global integration, initiative, and broadened training schemes makes neuroscience progress unsustainable with regard to ambitious goals of discovering more about the fundamentals of the brain and developing technologically advanced treatments for current financially draining disorders.

I frowned, contemplated my mom as she danced around the doctor’s words, searching for a simpler way of saying something that I already understood. My spine was not straight and if I didn’t get the brace, then it would continue to curve for certain, but with the brace I had a chance of stalling the inevitable outcome of surgery.