Today’s schedule was more similar to last week than any of the days this week. This was because Dr. Lawal had many procedures today. There were so many cases that my day ended more than an hour and a half later than usual. This can also be attributed to two cases which took quite a while longer than expected.
The first of these two cases involved an individual who had taken a Cologuard test. This is a test tjat can be administered at home that indicates (with great accuracy) whether you have colon cancer or many polyps or not. This individual had received positive feedback from the test, hinting at the possibility that the individual has cancer. While colonoscopies normally take around 25 minutes to complete, the colonoscopy of this individual took an hour. This was due to the extremely high prevalence of polyps: a total of 23 were removed and even more were left untouched (since they looked hyperplastic). Luckily for this individual, there were no cancerous growths; however, rhe individual will need to return in 1 year to get reassessed.
The second case that caused delay was an EGD of a very old individual afflicted with dementia. The issue involved the transfer of anesthesia to the patient. The problem was eventually found to be involving the IV. It took 3 attempts to place an IV so that it was functional and after that the operation proceeded smoothly.
Tomorrow I will be staying late once again. But, I should be able to see more patients in the hospital tomorrow since Dr. Lawal has a lighter procedure load.
Above are images of equipment and diagrams used today.