Cate Naukam


WEEK OF 3/26 - 4/1




Weekly Update


Another week has passed, an incredible week filled with hours in the operating room and shadowing my mentor. We’ve gotten into the routine of meeting twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays, which are his designated operating days. Each day presented its own set of unique experiences and learning opportunities, chances for me to grow in my robotic surgery education.




I’ve begun to enjoy my time at the hospital so much that everything I do for my required classes in school now seems mundane and irrelevant in comparison. When I take notes for AP U.S. History or study for an AP Calculus exam, I dream about how much I’d rather be in the operating room. Nothing is as fascinating to me as getting to expand my knowledge on the diagnosis of the patient’s insides I saw that morning. I love going home after a mentor visit and getting to scour the depths of Google, researching both rare and common diagnoses (like Meigs syndrome or lymphedema) in depth. While I know that I still have another whole year before I get to make studying medicine my priority in college, for now I think I can settle for observing surgery twice a week!