Tahg Senior Project

  May 17th, 2021 Teige and I love valve replacements so much, that we spent our entire day watching them. We started off with a mitral valve replacement. Next, we watched a tricuspid valve replacement. Everyone reading this might think, “Oh, but those all sound similar. They are all valve replacements.” Although that may be true, these operations are not the same. Including an aortic valve replacement, they all happen in different parts of the heart. Each valve is extremely important to the functionality of the heart and keeping us alive. It is still so mind-blowing to me that somehow, we humans figured out that we had the power to cut someone open, do something to their body, such as replace a valve, and keep them alive. Surgeons literally hold people’s lives in their hands, and although that is very daunting, I am so excited to have that feeling when I get the opportunity to save someone’s life. This marks day 7 for us, and we are now 33 ½ hours into senior project.

 May 15th, 2021 The first week of senior project was pretty awesome for me. I love what I chose to do for my project, and I am grateful that I have a close friend to do it with. This week has also been very, very informative, furthering my knowledge in this area of my interests. A lot of what I learned was from Diane and working at Ragged Mountain Physical Therapy, not necessarily from the surgeries. It is quite hard to learn a lot from just watching a surgery online because sometimes the surgeons do not talk often, others, I struggle to comprehend what they are saying because I personally have not gone through med school. Even so, the surgeries have been so amazing to watch. From Diane, I have learned an incredible amount in such a short time. Some things very simple such as preparing a heat pack. Others more complicated like what stim does, and why it is used. Another thing I have learned is that Russian Stim is extremely uncomfortable and leaves your legs (or wherever you got th...

  May 15th, 2021 Today was a very relaxing day for Teige and me. We kicked it off with a sleep-in till 10am, before convening together to watch one surgery. We decided to watch another cardiac valve replacement since we were both so fascinated by the first one. It is just so cool, being able to see what actually happens during surgery like this. Not many people care to see or understand what truly happens during surgery. I am grateful that Teige and I have the opportunity to watch these surgeries, watching every step. It really just makes me excited for my future, but only for actually performing the surgeries. It is also awesome that I have someone as interested in this stuff as me. It is also extremely funny that we basically have the same name, same interests, and want to do the same exact thing with our lives. We are now 28 hours into our senior project. Over halfway there!

  May 14th, 2021 We spent the day focused on watching neurosurgeries! It was a nice change of pace, and honestly, very interesting. Although cardiac surgery has both Teige and I’s hearts, we enjoyed watching these surgeries today. We watched two tumor removal videos. The first was a 4th ventricle ependymoma and the second was peritorcular meningioma. Both of these videos were extremely satisfying, especially when they pulled the entire tumor out, or just large chunks of it.  Teige and I kept rewinding so we could watch it again. Our third surgery for the day was an aneurism: Thalamic AVM. This was not as satisfying as the first two, but definitely still very intriguing to witness. There is so much going on in the brain and to see someone go into it and fix something like an aneurism is incredible. I cannot wait to just be able to know exactly what I am doing during surgery and know what everything is. It is a little hard watching these surgeries right now because Teige and I d...

  May 13th, 2021 We had another fun, full-day working with Diane at Ragged Mountain Physical Therapy. We started off at 9am with preparing for our “quiz” on the knee that Diane is giving us within the next week. Then, we got the privilege of working with our snowmobiling friend again. Teige and I got to lead him in exercises, which was super cool since that is part of Diane’s job, it made us feel important. We had a fun time with him, laughing and joking a lot. Next, we worked with a girl from Tilton with a knee problem. She completely destroyed her patellar tendon and had to have it rebuilt. We lead her in exercises as well, including me throwing a ball at her while she balanced on a balance pad. We then had some downtime where Teige and I got to do some of the exercises we were leading. We headed off for an hour to eat lunch, then returned for our afternoon session. We worked with an older man who had open knee surgery, hearing about his back story of his knee problems. He had su...

  May 12th, 2021 The day started off at 8:30 to begin our surgery watching. Yesterday, Diane told Teige and me that we should watch a hip replacement since we worked with a patient who had one. Specifically, she told us to watch an anterior hip replacement. It was extraordinary. They just saw right through the hip bone, removed it, and put an artificial one in. It is so crazy that they have come up with an artificial thing that can work the same as a regular hip. Next, we watched a coronary bypass surgery to get ourselves back into cardiothoracic surgery for the day. To be honest, it was not as interesting as the valve replacement, but still incredible. We finished off our 5 and half hour day with a video on “The Day in the Life of a Cardiac Surgeon.” It was super cool to see what Teige and I’s life will be like in the future. The surgeon had surgery starting at 5 in the morning and last him all day, doing three different operations. I am so ready for that, I think! This marks hour...

  May 11th, 2021 It was a bright and early start to the day at 8am to kick off our first day at Ragged Mountain Physical Therapy. We worked closely with Diane for just over 4 hours today. We did small things such as preparing heat packs or getting the ultrasound gel. We watched her work with many patients, hearing some very cool stories of their injuries. The first man we worked with had a complete anterior hip replacement, so he and I bonded over our hip surgeries, even though his surgery was much more intense than mine. We got to see his battle scar from the surgery, along with just watching Diane treat him. Next, we had the opportunity to work with this super cool woman with many interesting stories. The reason she is in PT is because of a horse accident. While trying to herd cattle on a horse, she fell off the horse straight onto her shoulder. Fortunately, there were no other bad injuries. She was also a nurse and is currently an anesthesiologist, so she was very informative fo...