Heartbeat

lab skill competition

Heartbeats cap 4

6:30am:

Being in a surgical program 99% formed by males made me realize very quickly that I'm on a shark tank. Even though I'm more like a Golden fish, I have to fight like a shark. And that's what I've been doing the past month.

Of course Blake, Selena and I are working our asses off but it's annoying seeing the glances they sent us everytime we scrub in a surgery. After the first week we were allowed to enter the OR to watch the surgery closely, but we can only hold retractors and suction for now. Not even sutures at the end of surgery we can do yet but I'm assuming this is about to change, since today we are going to have a special training at the skill lab, probably to improve our suture skills.

– Good morning, guys!– I say to Jack and the girls and hug them. Where is the jackass?

– Right behind you, princess.– Joe put his hand on my shoulders, making me jump scared.

– You son of a …– I start to curse but stop since she probably doesn't have fault that her son is a jackass.

– Well, I agree that my mom is a bitch, so I'm not offended at all. But nice try. Good morning, by the way.– He says and my blood boils. But I can't ignore the fact that he doesn't seem to have a good relationship with his mother. Must have happened something serious between them. Whatever it is, it's not a valid reason to become an idiot.

The others answer the greeting but I just roll my eyes, hoping my silence could annoy him.

Soon enough we leave the dressing room to go to the skill lab. The chief of surgery is waiting for us.

–Hey, kids. I hope your hands are well rested because we are going to play some games for the next 12 hours at least. Today you are going to improve your suture skills and after you learn how to make every type you guys will have a competition. Every round we will be eliminating  four competitors until we find the best intern, who will have a big honor tomorrow. Any questions?

No one says a single shit. We are all quiet, trying to concentrate. I start to stretch my hand and the idiot whispers in my ear:

– Oh, baby, these tiny hands won't survive the first round. Don't lose your time stretching.

I take a deep breath to not punch him in the nose. This fucking bastard will see who he messed with. Anger is an excellent fuel to my determination, so he just made me stronger than 10 seconds ago. I'll make sure to win this competition, even if it's the last thing I'm doing in life.

– Ok, everyone chooses your seats and looks at the board to find out the types we will be training this morning and in what order. You already learn all this in Med School but not practiced enough, so we are doing this now.

I look at the board and my eyes widen. It's a lot: Over and over suture, subcuticular suture, horizontal mattress, vertical mattress, lemberts, cushing, everting, lock-stitch, Halsted, Connell and finally purse-string suture. Eleven types. Of course I remember doing them in the surgical classes but it was a while ago.

I hear a chuckle by my left side and of course is Joe laughing at my wide-eyed gaze. I don't even waste my time paying attention to him. Now I have more important things to do.

– For those who have memory issues we are going to show you just one more time how to do it.– Chief explains and I swear I can hear some sighs of relief around. I look at my right side and spot Jack a few seats away from me, and I can tell you he's nervous as hell by the way his fingers are holding the table. Selena and Blake are behind me, both focused. We exchange good lucky looks and half smiles and I turn my attention to our teacher.