Question: what was is like performing your first operation?

James Chan answered on 23 Mar 2011:

Hi Janicee, thanks for Q!
Do you mean mouse or human??
I learnt to operate on humans before I came to operating on mice in my research. Operating on humans was actually fine to start with because I had a boss there who would show me what to do and make sure I didn’t do anything dangerous! But let me tell you, the first time I did an operation on my own was REALLY REALLY scary!! Everybody’s looking at you and you are supposed to know how to do it and you worry so much about… what if this happened? what if I cut something important?? what if what if…. luckily the mask is really good at hiding your anxiety… I am learning how to do more complex operations all the time, so I’m sure I’ll get that scary feeling for another few years yet.. at least!
When I came to operating on mice, the challenge was to operate on something so small. Fortunately, because I specialise in plastic surgery, I am used to operating on small things with magnifying glasses, like repairing finger nerves and arteries and things ilke that, but it was still a bit wierd operating on animals.. I was worried the little mice would not survive, but actually they all did really well, so I was very pleased. It’s great fun!