Once in a lifetime experience

Today I officially had my first OPEN surgery. It was a cholecystecomy, bowel removal, removal of a fistula, and bladder repair. All in one patient. A cholecystecomy is a procedure where you remove the gallbladder, in this case it was due to gallstones. The bowel removal was done because this patient has bad diverticulitis which is a condition that causes outpouching of the bowel. In this case the outpouching in the bowel caused a tract from the bowel to the bladder (a fistula). The first part of the procedure was another laparoscopy, the second part however was an open procedure. I actually put my hand in someones abdomen today and ran the bowel. It was really neat! The surgery took like 6 hours and by the end my feet, knees, and back were hurting but it was totally worth it.