Another Day in the Frontal Lobe — Katrina Firlik
This is an account of the practice of neurosurgery and, equally interesting, the lifestyle of a neurosurgeon. There is some interesting technical detail here about what it is in fact that “brain surgery” consists of, and I will say that I learned some things about neuroanatomy, disease, and surgical technique.
For me, the more intriguing material by far concerns the process of becoming a neurosurgeon, and what the day to day practice involves. It takes a long time to become a neurosurgeon: after four years of medical school there is a seven year residency. The book roughly follows the author along this course of study, from her decision to go to medical school, to her days as a lowly internist (as the first year residents are called) to her stint as chief resident, and finally her eventual entry into the working world as everyone else knows it at the tender age of thirty-three. With my burgeoning interest in medicine, I found this fascinating.
What does it take to become such a highly specialized creature? What are the compromises that have to be made? How does one deal with matters of life and death every day, yet remain unaffected? Is it possible to remember the humanity of your patients when you only really see them for five minutes at a time, except when they’re unconsious?
Aside from these deep questions, the author also takes time to discuss neurosurgery culturein general, such as the black humour that surfaces when things get truly bad. During a discussion of a congenitally malformed baby who would never grow up to have more than rudimentary, reflexive brain function, one physician speculated as to what kind of want ads he’d be able to answer if he ever manged to come of working age: “Looking for an individual who can reliably suck, cry, and kick his legs. Ability to smile is also desirable.”
She also comments often on the weird effects that stem from the inverse relationship betwee socioeconomic status and health:
It is a peculiarity of our professions that we do some of the most high-tech, interesting, labor-intensive, and expensive work on some of the most compromised individuals. I wonder in what other scenarios would you find a dozen intelligent people (neurosurgeons, neurologists, fellows, neuropsychologists, radiologists, nurses) gathered around a conference table, focusing great time, energy, and resources on a single patient who may never comprehend what is being done to them.
Ultimately, the book is mostly a comment on the strange world of highly specialzied medicine, and the people who are involved in it. That was interesting enough reading to me.
