Lost in the Surgery Jungle

Okay okay I admit. 12 weeks was too long for not updating my blog. I'm not busy. I'm lost in Surgery Jungle. Now I've made my way home. So let me tell you about my 12 weeks journey.

1. Emergency Room was amazing. Best experience in the department. I got to be the first to attend really sick people, to access their problems and get to a number of differentials. I did history takings, I took their blood for lab exams, I infused them and inject them their medications, sent them for x-rays and scans, it was a good thing that we have to stay there for two weeks, cause its a great feeling for being able to ease their discomfort and complaints. I'm not saying we are having a good time all the time, but the adrenaline, all the running for the sake of a person's life, and the satisfaction you get when all the hardship pays, it's priceless. Until now, I'm still hoping I can repeat it all once again. But with the new emergency room (air-conditioned and a bit smaller), it will be quite different from what it was, not saying one is more exciting than the other. One thing for sure, now you can't hear the sound of the ambulance anymore.

2. My LN (Luar Negeri) was in RS Islam Faisal. Sharing the room with other coass, they put a telephone in the room so if there's a need for any of the coass, the phone will just ring. So everytime it rings, all of us (Paeds, Internal Meds, Neuro and Surgery) will look at each other, guessing whose is it. In each of us praying, hoping that it's for other coass, please please please~ Then the moment of truth: usually it will be Paeds or Interna, but later on it turns out that Surgery had become Faisal's favorite. On two in the morning it rang and rang for this one sleepy Surgery Coass. When I got up to see who's the lucky patient, it was a guy with a tiny laceration at his neck, saying he was stabbed by a 'taji' that the locals believe to be poisonous. The chaos started when all his gang came and showed dissatisfaction on what had happened to him, holding for a revenge on the guy who had done this to their member. As the only 'doctor' there, this is quite terrifying for me, but I had to pretend that I'm not afraid. God knows how I really want to get off of their stares.
Yet, the nurses are super nice and sporting(most of them), Dr.Erwin had been nice and taught me a lot, dr. Ira is so much fun, and here is where I met dr. Cholis for the first time (note this!).

3. The WARDS. One by one subdivision really testing your patience and endurement of all the nonsence, irrationals and abundant jobs that were burden on you especially when most of your group partners were master of 'kalasi' or the sneakiest person you ever know. Well, I'm not that hardworking or dilligent, but I know my responsibility, and unfortunately I really spend times in doing my job. The job that should've took a few minutes might took me an hour to finish it. Or maybe I was distracted. I don't know. Most of my days in surgery, I'll go back at 4-5pm eventhough I'm not on-calls. When I arrive at my room sweet room, my bed was the only thing that matters.

4. Some patients stick neatly in my head and my heart until today. They are a few special people that caught my attention, and I think it was fate. A is an extraordinary boy who was born with incomplete formed bladder and he lived with it for 14 years. He can't feel when he urinates, and it's causing people to avoid being near him, because of the bad smells. He suffered mild depression due to the social rejection, and because of that too, he was absent in a lot of school days, making him a little late in the academic level. Fortunately, his 2 months waiting in the hospital was not worthless. With the collaboration of many divisions in Surgery Dept of Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital and the specialists from Jakarta, he can now go to school with a smile. He had already has his bladder made from his colon, and in a few months he will undergo another surgery to reconstruct his penis.

Mr.D was just another patient when he came in the Urology Ward. He caught my attention when his urine catheter kept on obstructed and took a lot of energy and time to be . It's interesting that for almost one month the dr. Aga and other doctors were struggling to get him operated for his prostate cancer. His grandson kept on telling me he's quite worry about his grandfather's condition if he undergo operation because of his age. But I said it's gonna be fine. Yes, he IS old, but the doctors are considering everything in order to get him in his best state. After a few weeks full of transfusions (almost 10 bags of Packed Red Cells/Whole Blood and 4 bottles of albumines I guess), lab tests and controls, converting his medical insurance status, at last he entered the operation room and the prostate was. Not long after, I discovered that his real age was not 70, but 90! Then it all comes to me like a puzzle; he is senile, he can barely walk and he actually looked old enough to be 90, he looked like my old grandfather in the last days of his life! Yes, and he get through it all. I hope he lived long enough to enjoy his un-retented bladder~ Well, he made me miss my grandpa more (he does look a little bit like him), maybe thats why he is special thru my eyes.

5. The Doctors. Well, I'm sure many of you can guess who's on the list of my favorite surgery doctors. I told about them too many too much I guess. Let just mention and not tell a tale. They are: dr. Johan G. Gama, my all time favorite teacher and idol(doctor), dr. Alders who had inspired me and taught me a lot, dr. Syukur who is so friendly and always generous at giving 'tenteran', dr.Cholis, Sp.U who always wants to teach and remembers my name ^_^, dr.Willy, Sp.BS who made me realize I must do better, dr. Subchan Aga whom I'm in debt( don't worry, I'll pay you before I go back), funny and friendly dr.Fikhi, dr. Asdar and dr. Irsal who have helped me through my exam with Prof AAI, and many more whom would make a list: dr.Erwin Patabang, dr. Ira Umar, dr. Ahmad Wirawan, Sp. A, dr. Rizal(who taught me applying splint), dr. Toton, dr. Reny, dr. Chairul (ortho), dr. Sugianto, dr. Ronald, dr. Tantowi, dr. Made, dr. Billy, sp.B, dr. Gunadi, Sp.B, dr. Warsinggih, Sp.B-KBD, dr. Sofyan, dr. Rizqi, dr. Yoskar, dr. William, Sp.B-Onk, dr. Ari G Hoste, dr. Mulawardi, dr. Pipin, and a lot more. I'm sorry if I forgot to include your name, all much appreciated. Thank you.

It's a great coincidence that dr. Johan was there while we are taking this picture.

It's a crime not to include him.

6. Bad memories are kept as a lessons so it won't happen again. One of them is when I'm in Thorax subdivision with a patient named Mr. B. He has a vascular disease called Deep Vein Thrombosis and he only have her mother taking care of him. While he can't walk and her mother doesn't speak and understand Bahasa Indonesia, many of his matters has to be done by somebody else, usually its nurses or coass. One time, his wound was biopsied and the sample need to be taken to the lab. So I willingly offer my help as I thought it would be simple, when actually it's not. I have to photocopy his documents and send it to an office to get stamps, then queue to get the result codes. So I gave the documents and the codes back to the patient, asking him to take care of it, explaining how important they are for his medical record. A few days after I leave the subdivision, I was called by the nurse where Mr.B was treated and was asked about his insurance guarantee documents. I told her what I did and she got so mad cause I didn't return it back to the nurses. I was confused, where would it go? Then I asked Mr.B and he said they might have lost all the documents because they kept on moving from a bed to another bed. I searched again and there's nothing left except his ID. The nurse holds me responsible for the loss of the documents as they are the only thing that pays for their medical expences. I was terrified. I don't know waht to think and I'm so afraid they were going to ask me to pay for Mr.B. After a few days another nurse came and ask me to manage his insurance guarantee at the Jamkesda Office. In a few minutes, alhamdulillah, it was all done. I've passed my charges.
I still remember what he said," I know your intentions are good, it is to help, yes. But sometimes a good intention itself is not enough. You need to do it right, sometime with an evidence that show you really did it."
I've learned my lesson.


Everybody is going to get through this jungle. It's gonna be different, but I assure you, it's gonna be priceless.


-IMAN NAILAH 2010-
Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan.

*kalasi = the act of running away from responsibility, talent of vanishing from scene.
*taji = a moon-crest shaped, sharp edge weapon