Attended the monthly thoracic surgery meeting this morning to discuss cases.

The rest of the morning was spent with Dr. Palaez, rounding and seeing patients.  It was an interesting contrast – at Cardioinfantil, we saw consults and patients in his role as Vascular Surgery fellow before proceeding to Clinica del Country to see patients in his role as the attending Thoracic Surgeon.  It was a different perspective for me and I asked Dr. Palaez about it.

He explained that while many of his colleagues thought it was interesting that he would return to training at this stage in his life (he is 49 and has been a practicing thoracic surgeon for many years), that he was really enjoying his training.  He believes strongly in lifelong learning but is very pleased to be close to the completion of his vascular surgery training.  He has enjoyed the experience but is looking forwards to being a practicing vascular surgeon.  (He is currently training with Dr. Jaime Camacho, who is himself, a hybrid surgeon with training in both vascular and cardiac surgery.

During rounds, we saw several post-operative patients as well as consultations in the emergency room with a wide variety of vascular disease.