u/Kooky-Paint-8946

My school has an LIC curriculum so I’ve been with these attendings for nearly 10 months, 11 months by the end of the block. They have all been phenomenal. I was thinking of getting some thoughtful gifts as we have similar interests, like a badge reel for my peds attending, some earrings for my psych attending, and maybe a baby shower gift for my OBGYN attending as she is currently on maternity leave. I wouldn’t spend more than 20 dollars on this(that’s stretching it), might pick up some donuts for the staff, and write a kind thank you letter. I’m not interested in any of these specialties, just had a good time and appreciated the extra effort they put into my professional development. I’ll also preface that I don’t intend the gift to affect my final evaluation. They all have also bought me coffee or lunch at some point so I feel obliged to return the favor.

Is this too much? I tend to overdo things like this, but at one of my other rotations an NP student bought the attending a bottle of liquor at the end of her rotation so I don’t know how to gauge this.

NSFW for implied self harm.

I have some old scars on my upper arms. Honestly it doesn’t bother me horribly but I’ve been out in the sun and the tanning makes them more obvious. They end at my elbow. Is it acceptable for me to wear a compression sleeve up to my elbow in the OR? I’ve seen other staff wear them, I can scrub fine without the sleeve interfering. I just don’t want judgmental old surgeons commenting on my scars when I want to apply surgery as well. I figured makeup wouldn’t work since I’ll be scrubbing my arms anyways, but probably not as high? I’m not sure.

I’m a med student and considering surgery, I’ve noticed when hand tying that my fingers will lock up occasionally. My joints are hypermobile, the tendons seem to slide over the knuckles, and this has never bothered me until recently when working with sutures. I’ve always had relatively good dexterity and while my fingers have always been like this, it hasn’t been an issue until now. I was wondering if this would be an issue for someone applying surgery and if there’s any exercises that surgeons use to combat this.

On a slightly related issue, I’ve become slightly paranoid about hand injuries in general. 2 of my professors stopped operating due to tendon injury and hand contractures. What do I do if I go into surgery and can no longer operate? Do people just apply into another residency?