My Surgical Operations Over the Years (from 1976 to 2013) – A Reflection

My Surgical Operations Over the Years (from 1976 to 2013) – A Reflection

Reynaldo O. Joson, MD, MHA, MHPEd, MSc Surg

May 13, 2014

I am a general surgeon by profession.  Thus, in the practice of my profession, I got to see patients with potential and definite surgical disorders (disorders that are usually treated by a surgical operation).  It goes without saying that I also got to do surgical operations.

2014 marks a milestone in my life as I reached 65 years old, an age traditionally considered as the retirement age in the Philippines, particularly those working with the government.  I consider age 65 as another crossroad in my life in which I need to do a retreat to review my past life and then to plan for a life after age 65.

One of the things that I decided to review and reflect is my surgical operations over the years (from 1976 to 2013) with focus on 1982 to 2013, the years after my surgical training.  I decided to look back at my past life when I did surgical operations and then write any thoughts, perceptions, opinions, and recommendations (TPORs) that I may have, that may be triggered or derived from the review.  The TPORs may be for personal consumption (planning my life after age 65 with regards to surgical operations) or for sharing with any interested parties, particularly, my surgical colleagues and surgical residents.  In the process of doing the review, I will also do Re-study, Refinement and Re-affirmation of any things related to my surgical operations.

My general surgery experience started with my training.  I had a 6-month stint in the Department of Surgery of Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital in Greenhill, San Juan City, from January to June, 1976.  From July 1976 up to June 1981, I transferred to the Department of Surgery of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and finished my 5 years of general surgery residency training program.  See records of my surgical operations in PGH from 1976 to 1981 for a glimpse of the type and number of operations that I did.  Although the focus of my TPORs will be from my surgical operations done from 1982 to 2013, I cannot do away with the insights that may be triggered from looking at the operative experience that I had in my surgical residency training program in PGH.  These insights on operations during my training days may interface with those after my training.    

 

In 1982, I officially started my private surgical practice in the Philippines (1982 to 2013 = 31 years).  I combined private surgical practice with teaching of surgical residents in the hospitals that I decided to become affiliated with.  These hospitals are, namely, Philippine General Hospital (early 1982 to 2013); Medical Center Manila (late 1982 to 1995); Manila Doctors Hospital (1984 to 2013); and Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center (1989 to 2013).

I tried retrieving my post-training records of surgical operations from 1982 to 2013.  I was able to retrieve only those from 1989 to 2013.  See records of my surgical operations from 1989 to 2013.  I will continue to look for the records from 1982 to 1988.  Meanwhile, I will proceed to write my reflections based on whatever available records.  I will try to recall if I cannot retrieve these missing records.  I will also use the papers that I wrote and published in the past that contained information of my surgical operations.  Examples are my papers on appendiceal abscess, appendicitis, gastrointestinal fistulas, parotid tumor, thyroid, and myocutaneous flaps.

The reflections that I will write will initially be on the basis of “as they are thought of” as I looked at the records of my surgical operations.  In the future, I hope to collate and regroup these random TPORs to systematize my presentation.

To be continued.