Surgery Is Freaking Hard

This was quite the work week. I technically worked 12 days straight between call and my elective sports patients. On the 13th day, I parked myself in the torture chair under the hands of my Russian tattoo artist. Recovery day… obviously.

After a monster 4-hour surgery on day 12 of 12, I stumbled into the surgical recovery room with exhaustion in my eyes, barely able to string a sentence together. Meanwhile, the patient I had just operated on was in great spirits as I told him how challenging the surgery was (we knew it would be going in, and I had prepped us both for it). To that, the recovery room nurse goes, "Dr. Jimenez does a lot of these unicorn surgeries."

Unicorn Surgery

For all you literal thinkers out there, no, sadly I can't turn you into a unicorn.

When it comes to sports surgeries and military trauma, I do not shy away. I did 3 of these unicorn surgeries this week, and boy, my brain was absolutely mush by Friday. I literally turned to an operating room nurse and said “educational words are hard right now”.

I often send simpler surgeries off post because I want the tough cases. I want to save my operating room time for surgeries that are hard and help me grow. The ones I enjoy performing alongside my partners because they are that gnarly.

Booking a bunch of basic meniscus surgeries, to me, is like going to the gym and walking on the treadmill for 2 hours every single day. Sometimes it's fun and needed. Most of the time? I want more.

Flow State In Big Surgeries

Flow state. A challenge is right in front of you. You know you can pull it off, but there is a chance you might not. That is where I come alive. It is why I enjoy competing in jiu jitsu and doing big surgeries. No room for your mind to wander, no space to ruminate. Just you and the present moment. That is flow, baby.

What It Actually Costs

A big surgery wrecks me more than an hour of competition rolling. Why? My mind is far more taxed. Surgery is physical, sure, but more than anything it is a mind game.

Surgeons love to say "surgery is hard." Things don't always go our way, which is exactly why we have plans A through F. I lie awake some nights running through every place it could go sideways and exactly what I'll do when it does. Because failing to prepare is preparing to fail. That goes for anything in life. It is why we drill the crappy positions in jiu jitsu class. So when things hit the fan (and they always do), we are ready.

Final Thoughts

Flow lives in that sweet spot between too easy and too hard (definitely closer to the hard side), where the challenge is real and so is the chance of falling flat on your face. That is where the magic happens. On the mats, in the operating room, and in life.

So here is my question for you. What is your unicorn? What is the hard thing you keep dodging because the easy version feels a whole lot cozier? Get off the treadmill. Go find the case that fries your brain a little. That is where growth happens, and you have no choice but to stay in the here and now.

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Dr. Megan Lisset Jimenez 

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