Cate Naukam


WEEK OF 3/19 - 3/25




Weekly Update


Over this past week, I’ve had two visits with my mentor, each presenting their own unique sets of opportunities and learning experiences. I was fortunate enough to observe two surgeries on each visit, all four being hysterectomies with individualized reasons.





I’d like to briefly name each surgery and then evaluate my learning as a whole:


  1. A hysterectomy for a woman with a complex ovarian cyst, an abundance of adhesions and scar tissue presented a small obstacle

  2. A hysterectomy for a woman with a massive fibroid (one of the biggest ones Dr. Heffernan has operated on)

  3. A hysterectomy with ovarian preservation for a women with complex endometriosis and atypia

  4. A complete hysterectomy (excise tubes and ovaries) plus lymph node mapping


While yes, all four cases were the same basic procedure, differentiating circumstances for each one really help evaluate the claim that every surgery is unique. I’ve heard this from many surgeons in the past, but it is hard to recognize the variation that can occur in something seemingly so repetitive without direct, nearly hands-on experience. If I were to describe the steps of the surgeries I watch every week to you, they’d likely all sound the same, but despite my ADD tendencies I am anything but bored when I sit in the operating room. There is something truly captivating about watching medical magic unfold 3 feet away from you. I fully believe that I could experience surgery for years and never grow sick of it, something that really inspires me to continue to pursue my choice of field.