Hello to everyone and anyone who may be reading my first blog post. My name is Avery Wright and I am a 2021 Pinhead Intern. I am on the beautiful island of Saint Croix, and I am studying Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery under Dr. Gregory Moorman. This is my first week in Saint Croix, but let me tell you it has been an incredible week.
I landed on the island late on the 30th, and I was greeted by Dr. Moorman and his daughter Ava. My first adventure here was finding out that my luggage was still at Miami International Airport. Thankfully, Dr. Moorman had a pair of scrubs I could borrow for tomorrow’s surgery at Plessen Medical Center.
Thursday morning, July 1st, I woke up at 6:30, and we were on our way to the Plessen Medical Center by 7:40. Dr. Moorman had a breast reduction surgery scheduled for the day. I filled out my HIPAA paperwork, changed into clean scrubs, and headed into the OR. The surgery took three and a half hours. Dr. Moorman removed around 400 grams of breast tissue and fat from each side. Although 400 seems like a large number, it was one of the smaller breast reductions Dr. Moorman has performed. In total he removed 8 pounds from each side. During the procedure Dr. Moorman noticed her lymph nodes were discovered. He removed them from the breast and sent the specimen to a Pathologist. The Pathologist asked if the patient had tattoos, which she did, and he concluded that her lymph nodes were absorbing the tattoo ink. After the procedure was completed we left the hospital to pick up my luggage from the airport, and head back to the house. The rest of the day included me unpacking and moving into my new home for the next month.
Friday morning, July 2nd, I woke up again at 6:30 and left the house at 7:40. An inguinal hernia and an abdominoplasty were on Dr. Moorman’s schedule. The hernia was a faster surgery than the breast reduction, but it was still very technical. Dr. Moorman had to separate the vas deferens and blood vessels from the hernia sac. The first photo above is of Dr. Moorman holding the vas deferens and blood vessels once he separated them from the hernia sac. Once he did that Dr. Moorman was able to push the hernia sac back into the body and then put mesh over it so it would not come back out. After that he sewed up the wound, had his lunch break at 9:30, and started on the abdominoplasty. The second photo is of Dr. Moorman holding all the layers of skin above her abdomen muscles. Dr. Moorman then cut off left and right pieces from the patient’s stomach, which you can see me holding in the third photo. Both pieces weighed around 2 pounds, so Dr. Moorman removed a total of 4 pounds from the patient’s stomach.
Saturday July 3rd was an office day for Dr. Moorman and his birthday. We went to his office at Moorman Aesthetic Center, at 8:00 to perform botox and look at postoperative patients. The first patient received botox to remove wrinkles from her forehead and from the spot between the eyebrows. The next patient I got to see was from the breast reduction surgery I observed on the 1st. It was amazing to see how fast the body had already started to heal after two days. The following patient was also from a breast reduction surgery performed by Dr. Moorman a week before I arrived. The final patient I was able to see was the abdominoplasty patient from yesterday July 2nd. After all the check ups, we left Dr. Moorman’s office to get breakfast. The rest of the day included celebrating Dr. Moorman’s birthday.
Since I am uploading this block Saturday night, I do not know what will happen tomorrow. However, I do know it is our day off since it is Sunday, and it is the 4th of July. As of right now we plan to take the Moorman’s boat out to Buck Island, a small island only 15 minutes away from Saint Croix. Buck Island has an underwater National Park. I will update you in my next blog post about what I thought of Buck Island, and the adventures I do on July 4th.
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