REFLECTION

I have completely finished all my hours for my Capstone project and I have to say I have learned a lot from completing all of aspects of the project.
The three things that I used to complete this project contain collaboration, communication and creativity. A lot more collaboration and communication rather than creativity. Communication was probably the most important due to the fact that I could only observe my mentor on Fridays and sometimes weekdays and never on weekends. I would always email or call my mentor to reassure my appointments about observation. The collaboration came more into play when I got to observe surgeries because he would show me different things and techniques that he used during a procedure and ask me if I find it interesting or would ask me questions about things. So we collaborated a lot the entire time I did my hours.
I gained a lot from completing the Capstone project, personally, socially and intellectually. Intellectually I learned many different things about the body and all the different pros and cons of becoming a plastic surgeon. The time consuming schedule,  the rigrous and very dangerous surgery on the contrary the great pay  accommodated with a very sufficient lifestyle. Personally and socially I learned how to interact with others on a more formal level rather than a friendship. I learned how to work with others in a business environment.
Even with all that I learned from this project I had a lot of obstacles that I had to overcome, the first one was communication due to the odd hours and my mentor's office being in S.F. I overcame that by calling and emailing him a lot more and just communicating with him much more. Second was transportation which was resolved with me walking at least 4 to 5 miles and catching Bart early in the morning. The last one was the hours, because my mentor worked early in the morning, on weekdays, I had to miss a lot of school and I still haven't been able to resolve that issue, it is still work in progress.

All an all this Project was a great experience that I learned a lot from on many levels, so
Peace Out
Divyashish Kumar

NEAR THE END

Hey Guys,
This is my Last blog, I have already completed close to 32 hours of mentoring a plastic surgeon and acquired a lot of skills and knowledge from him. I also got to observe many different interesting procedures, that I would have never been able to do.
Thank You so much to all the people that were a part of this project and helped me out in any aspect of this project.
Sincerely
Divyashish Kumar

GLUTE IMPLANTS

Time - 8am to 2pm
Today was a day like no other, because I observed my second live surgery but I don't know whether it was cool or disgusting, even with all the blood and incisions I wasn't really grossed out. The day started out with me getting to my mentor's office at around 8am just like usual. This time my mom gave me a ride because it was near her job. After I got to the hospital I waited in the lobby and then Dr. J came in a hurry just like always and all he said was," Surgery Let'a Go." So I just followed him to the other facility in a rush.

 I was kind of a normal procedure because Of the fact that I had observed a surgery before. Everyone got in their surgical attire and after the anestiologist did all the formalities, I saw the patient and she was close to a 28 year old woman who wanted some fat grafting and some butt implants. I remember when the surgery started it was extremely cold in the room but the surgery required so much movement for the Doc that he was sweating. SO he kept turning up the A.C and I froze the entire surgery.


After the Doc completed the fat grafting, which you guys can read in my last blog, he flipped the patient on her back and used a heated pen like apparatus and began   to cut through the skin where the butt crack starts and slowly he opened up the pockets of the patient's butt muscles. He said hat was the easiest part. After that he began to sterilize the implants and then he started to try to fit the implants in the opened butt pockets. This is the most difficult part of the surgery it due to the fact that a minor mistake can cost you a lot of time. For example it took him 46 minutes to put in the left implant and only 6 for the right only because he had a little size difference in the cuts. After the implants were in the doc took many different types of stitches and stitched up the patients' butt. Before I knew it a six hour surgery was done.

Overall the day was strangley normal even though I watched someones gluts get torn into half. I learned a lot of new things and also observed a very cool procedure, so
Peace Out
Divyashish Kumar

FIRST REAL SURGERY

Time - 7am to 2pm
Total Hours - 7
Another early morning and another early session with my mentor to complete my hours. Hey Guys another post, for a set of hours that I completed with my mentor. But today was a very special day because I got to observe a real live Fat Drafting surgery. So, today I woke around the usual time at about 5.30 am and forgot that I had an appointment with my mentor to observe and get some more hours done. At around 6 I realized about it so  I got ready, tired as all hell and left my house, I had to catch BART to get to S.F. I got at the Hospital at around 6.55 and so I went to Dr. J's office and it was closed, so I just went back down to the lobby sat there thinking what I should do. To my surprise I see Dr.J all ready in his surgical gear, I then I realized that I forgot I was going to Obderve a Live Surgery. We rushed to his other office down the block and we got ready.
 I found out that the patient was a 60 year old war veteran transvestite who wanted to get fat drafted from his back and then put into his chest, so that he would have a set of natural breasts. The nurse gave the patient his gown and then laid him down on the bed and put an I.V into his arm. Then the anestigiologist came over and asked the patient general question so that he would know if the patient would have a bad reaction to the anestiga he was going to receive. Then the doc started the procedure after he put on all the protective gear and gloves as well as the mask.

 He started to make little incisions in the back of the patient then inserted a pie into them and filled them with a fluid that would sterilize the inside of the skin so that the fat would part off of it. Then he went in with the same tube and started to suck out all the fat from his back. It took him two to three hours to get all the fat that he wanted.



After he collected all the fat in a huge container, he stated to strain the fat apart from the blood and fluids, after he did that he packed fat little by little into the chest of the patient through a huge injection. It took him a long time to do so because he had to be precise with the amount of fat he would insert to each side so that the breasts would be even. After he finished that he stitched up all the little incisions he made on the back of the patient and so the surgery was done.

For me to actually watch a surgery LIVE was a huge deal, I never though I would be able to do that in my entire Life time it was a very cool and exhilarating experience, that came once in a life time. Overall it was a good day full of surprises, so
Peace Out
Divyashish Kumar

IPL SURGERY

Time- 7am to 2pm
Total Hours - 7
Another early morning and another early session with my mentor to complete my hours. So, today I woke around the usual time at about 5.30 am and realized that I had an appointment with my mentor to observe and get some more hours done. I got ready, tired as all hell and left my house at around 6.15 am, I left early because I had to catch bart to get to S.F and be there at around 7. I got at the Hospital at around 6.55 and to my surprise my mentor was running late because he had an early surgery to take care of at a hospital , so I just went to his office talk to the nice receptionist and waited there for the a little bit for my mentor to show up.
After some time, Dr. Javaheri arrived at his office and we sat down and greeted each other and he started to check our schedule for today and what were the different things that I was going to observe today. In the schedule there were a lot of little procedures that take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete. There were lots of IPL surgeries and also a lot of Post-Offs. The first patient was running late so we waited for a few minutes and the Doc just prepped his operating room.
Finally the patient arrived, so the nurse took care of all the paper work and it only took about 20 minutes, which is very important due to the liability factor. Then we went to the operating room and began the procedure called IPL surgery. It stands for intense pulsed laser surgery, it's a form of skin and hair removal. It is very effective and better than any other method. Before we began anything Dr.J had to ask the patient if I could observe her, I was very nervous but fortunately she said yes and so we started the procedure.






First Dr. J put on a cleansing substance in the area that was supposed to be cleaned and then he started to use a mouse looking apparatus and flash the area with it. It also stung a little, so he repeatedly asked the patient whether it hurts or not. We had to all had to wear protective eye goggles because the light from the machine was very harmful to our eye lenses. The doc repeated the same step very carefully over and over until he treated the entire surface and then the procedure was over. In the entire day I observed at least 3 to 4 of these surgeries and two post op.

The day was pretty productive and I got to learn a lot and see a lot of very high tech machines. Overall it was a great but very tiring day, so
Peace Out
Divyashish Kumar

GETTING STARTED

Time - 8 am to 2 pm
Total Hours - 6
Hey, So I woke up at about 5 a.m. And got ready to leave my house at around 6.30 and got to my mentor's office on time at at around 7.30 am. I felt so tired and drained out because I was up very late trying to all my AP Government homework. I also had to wait for him to get to his office because he was running about half and hour late, so I just sat there and read a couple of brochures that were on his table for about 45 minutes. He came in around 8.20 and got we went to his office and he checked his mail and got organized which took him a little bit because he had a lot of mail.

Because he was on his computer he decided to pull  up some images that he had on is computer of the previous surgeries that he did. There were various kinds of surgeries that he had done from cancer patient to breast implants and many other. For some reason he was very specific about how he did every procedure and spent a lot of time just explaining to me what he had done in each of the surgeries and then he kept going on and on about the post ops and also how great all of them turned out. I was very surprised about all the pictures that I saw because they seemed completely natural, as if there was no procedure done to them what so ever. After the pictures we started to talk about how difficult it is doing procedure that he does and also how difficult it is to be a plastic surgeon.

 After talking about the hardships present in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery, we started talking about how long it takes to become one and what credentials are needed. He said that if I wanted to be a surgeon, I would have to start out by going to an undergraduate university that has a strong medical background, he mentioned that he went to university of California Davis and did very well in it. Then I would have to work hard and stand out in those four years for example being the top five ranked in my class. Also get an internship and maybe even get a mentor so that I would stand out from so many other students. Then I would apply to medical school, the things that I would have done in the last four years would pretty much determine how good of a school I may be able to get into and if I get in i would pick the career that I wanted to pursue and specialize in that field. Thankfully he was very clear and through about the entire process and gave me a lot of examples.

After that I would need to complete all the requirements for that particular career. If I don't get into medical school than I could still go to Ostio Pathic school. After op or medical school I would have to try to achieve my residency, which is a type of license/credential to be able to operate on others. A person can only apply for it after four years of MED school. Then I would have to give a physical and written test to achieve my residency and then I would be a certified surgeon. I would be certified to have my own private surgeries and or operate in a hospital. He gave me a lot of information about the field of plastic surgery and I'm kind of overwhelmed about all the things that I would have to  become a surgeon. But I'm sure its probably worth, well that does it for another mentoring session.
Peace out
Divyashish Kumar

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FIRST DAY

Time - 9 am to 3 pm
Total Hours - 6
On January 18 I met my mentor, in San Francisco, Dr. Javaheri one of the best plastic surgeons in California. His office was in one of these huge buildings that intimidate someone if they just look at it. It took me 10 minutes just to locate his office, but it had a couple minutes to spare because my appointment was at 9 am. After I finally found his office, as I went in I checked in with the receptionist and had to wait to meet Dr. Javaheri. After a few minutes he finally came out and we shook hands. I was really nervous of whether or not he would agree to be my mentor. He introduced himself and told me frankly, " it's hard to make it in the surgery business", and that I would have to work really hard to make it as a plastic surgeon. Then he told me about his experience and how his dad was a surgeon which made him want to be a surgeon.

 As he went on, he asked me a lot of questions about why I wanted to enter the field of survey and what made me want to be a medical student.  It really made me think and realize the importance of this mentorship and also the opportunity that this project gave me. He kept on answer me more questions about my family background and why being a surgeon is important to me, and we kept talking for a while. It made me feel very comfortable that he was so friendly and he seemed very nice and understanding person.

After we got done talking he took me around his office and showed me all these different rooms, that he operates on patients., He pretty much gave me a tour of his entire office and I was very surprised by how big it was. Then he also made introduces me to all of his staff and some of his colleagues who seemed like good people. I also noticed how cold it was most of the place we went into and it kind of made me regret not bringing a jacket. After the tour we were done for the day and I told Dr. J that I would email him and make another appointment to continue my hours.

Overall it was a very cool day, I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of new things. I also enjoyed talking to Dr. Javaheri and got to know him on more of a personal basis rather than as just my mentor. I learned about a lot of things in the medical field that are very interesting and stand out. All and all i had a great time today, hopefully i get to observe a surgery pretty soon, that would be pretty cool.
Peace out
Divyashish Kumar