Has anyone had to get major surgery during school?

[Brotatorcuff]

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[RangerBob]

I am sure your school has had students go through similar things before.

If you have control over timing, doing it after interviews in M4 is certainly the most ideal time left. Many students essentially finish med school around Oct/Nov and the rest of M4 is all vacation/interview/easy electives. Others have more some serious rotations, but it’s school/schedule-dependent. By and large most people talk about how chill M4 is so it seems to be the default.

Ideally talk with your scheduler now, so that you can get an M4 track that allows you the time off you need for surgery as well as lighter-duty rotations that are doable during your recovery period. This may mean front-loading with the required/heavy stuff.

I personally recommend taking a serious rotation towards the end of M4 to help get back in the swing of seeing patients/taking life seriously before being thrown into intern year. I did my floor sub-I in April. It actually wasn’t that bed because my preceptor (chief of medicine at the hospital) was just impressed I showed up after Match Da. He usually sent me home by 3pm most days, but still, it sort of helped me get back in the swing of things. Some of my co-interns literally hadn’t touched a patient since Oct/Nov of the prior year.

 

[Brotatorcuff]

If you have control over timing, doing it after interviews in M4 is certainly the most ideal time left. Ideally talk with your scheduler now, so that you can get an M4 track that allows you the time off you need for surgery as well as lighter-duty rotations that are doable during your recovery period. This may mean front-loading with the required/heavy stuff.

Thank you for the reply, RangerBob! I do have control over timing and will contact my scheduler. I will try to find a semi serious rotation for the end of the year as well.

 

[hmockingbird]

Agree with RangerBob. I did not have major surgery during med school but have had to fit it into other times in my life. Definitely agree winter/spring of M4 after interviews is best. See if you can minimise time off with stuff like research or reading electives. For example our “research” elective was totally self-directed and up to you and your preceptor. So I actually used that time to go visit family, since I just had data analysis to do that I could do on my laptop. Another person I know got M4 credit for time spent getting chemo because she wrote a large essay about it. I think they called it a narrative medicine elective. Basically there are typically flexible options available during M4 especially if you give your school a heads up and plan for it.

 

[Tangerine123]

Uvulupalatopharingoplasty + Septoplasty + Turbinectomy + Tonsilectomy

Scheduled it in a way that I could use my christmas break (2 weeks) to recover. Worked perfectly.

The ENT that performed the surgery was an attending that I had been with in my ENT rotation some months prior to the procedure. Same for the Anesthesiologist. Chill procedure. Recently had a Cholecystectomy in the hospital I work at as a resident.I've also had Endoscopies done on me by Gastro attendings and preceptors I rotated with. Fun times.

 

[Brotatorcuff]

Great, thank you for the info and experiences, hmockingbird and Tangerine123! I will try to plan electives to make it work.

 

[C.elegans]

OMFS resident here. I've seen a few med students for orthognathic surgery consultation in clinic. One of them was a MD/PhD student who was starting her gradschool portion, and one of them was a incoming MS4 who was trying to get the surgery scheduled for winter break. Depends on your school but if your curriculum has a built in research semester, you can also use that time. Not sure what kind of jaw surgery you are getting, but assuming it is orthognathic surgery, you'll likely be in elastic bands for around 2 weeks and the facial swelling will be the worst during this time. If you can use your winter break to recover at home for around 2 weeks, you would be out of your elastics by the time you come back to school and the swelling should improve alot by then. The biggest downside to getting surgery during winter break is not being able to eat anything solid during the holiday season (you'll be on a blenderized diet).

 

[Brotatorcuff]

Thanks for the information C. elegans!