Travis Baumgarten (Host): Welcome to Mile Bluff Unscripted, where we bring you real conversations with the people behind your care. I'm Travis Baumgarten. And today, I'm joined by Dr. Bruce Lynch to talk about general surgery. Let's get started.

Thanks for joining us, Dr. Lynch. To start off, tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to specialize in general surgery.

Bruce Lynch, MD: Well, thanks for having me, Travis. So, I'm originally from Florida. I was born and raised there, and then grew up in New Jersey. And as a young child, I had several health issues. I had my tonsils out when I was four, and then my appendix out when I was seven. I just remember those kind of formative episodes of being in the hospital, going in sick and coming out feeling better. That really impressed me with the people that took care of me. I always had a strong interest in sciences. And so, medicine seemed like a natural fit. And then, as I went through my training, really liked the aspects of general surgery. Being able to diagnose someone, treat the problem usually surgically, and then see them when they're better. And being able to fix something really appealed to me. So, that's why I picked general surgery.

Host: Yeah. And building on that, how does your background influence your approach to patient care? Talk about your military service as well.

Bruce Lynch, MD: Well, I think the fact that I've had a chance to serve people in really all parts of the country. I've been stationed in Alaska, Florida, Maryland, and now living in Wisconsin. I see a little bit of everything, as well as working in similar size hospitals throughout the military to what Mile Bluff is. And I really enjoyed the team aspect of a smaller hospital where you're able to collaborate pretty effectively with the other providers and provide the best care for the patients.

Host: And for people who may not know exactly what a general surgeon does, let's zoom out a little bit. Can you describe the range of procedures a general surgeon typically performs and how these have evolved over time?

Bruce Lynch, MD: Sure. Typically, what we would like to describe general surgery is pretty much the house of all surgery, including all the surgical specialties. And what we do is we're able to provide care basically for any kind of abdominal complaints, any kind of skin complaints, breast complaints, hernias, gallbladders, appendectomies, all those kinds of things. So, really caring for the whole patient.

Host: Yeah. And speaking of the procedures, let's talk about the conditions you see most often. What are some of the most common surgical conditions you treat And what recent advancements have kind of improved the patient outcomes for these conditions?

Bruce Lynch, MD: Absolutely. Two of the things we see the most commonly are issues with the gallbladder that we call cholecystitis and appendicitis. And both of those have been remarkably influenced in their care by laparoscopic surgery. Surgeries that used to take several hours and require several days in the hospital to recover from are now things that are completed in under an hour and the patient is able to come in and go home the same day most times. And that's really changed our ability to treat these conditions sooner before the patients get sicker and allow the patients to return to their normal activities, what they enjoy doing a lot quicker with less disruption to their life.

Host: And that leads perfectly into something a lot of people hear about, but may not fully understand. Talking about the minimally invasive surgeries that are available now. And how has that changed the field And the recovery experience for patients?

Bruce Lynch, MD: It's been revolutionary. Even the sickest patients are able to undergo surgeries that before would've been prohibitive based on heart conditions, lung conditions, and things like that, because minimally invasive surgery doesn't require as much stress put on the body. And so, you're able to have less pain and a quicker recovery and just overall able to tolerate the procedure better. So, we're able to offer more surgeries to more people that we wouldn't have been able to in the past.

Host: And of course, surgery isn't just about the procedure itself. There's a lot of preparation involved. How do you help patients and families get ready, especially those who might be feeling a little anxious about having the procedure done?

Bruce Lynch, MD: Well, I think the key to any anxiety before a procedure is really knowing what's going to happen, knowing every step of the way, what's going to happen on the morning of surgery, what's going to happen when they're wheeling you into the operating room, when you're waking up, how long you're going to be there. So, the more information the patient and their family gets, I think, really alleviates their anxiety.

So, it's really spending time with them prior to the procedure to letting them know what's going to happen. So, nothing realistically will surprise them on the day of. And that tends to ease their anxiety and make things go very smoothly on the day of their procedure and afterwards in the recovery.

Host: Yeah. And once the surgery is done, the care of course doesn't stop there. So, how do you ensure continuity of care and collaborate with primary care providers before and after that procedure?

Bruce Lynch, MD: I think one of the advantages we have here at Mile Bluff is overall we are a small hospital and some would view that as a disadvantage. I think it's the ultimate advantage. Just this morning, I was seeing a patient for a condition that I was able to talk to that patient's primary care provider personally, we were able to coordinate the care and actually walked over and reviewed some films on that patient with the radiologist. And then, we're able to get that patient scheduled for surgery next week. And that's just something that you aren't able to get traveling, you know, an hour or two hours away from home. You have the people here. We work together all the time. We're able to collaborate effectively on our patients. And that leads to great patient outcomes and the best possible patient care.

Host: So, switching gears a little bit, but for patients who know they have an elective surgery coming up, any practical steps on what they can do to support a smoother surgery and recovery?

Bruce Lynch, MD: Yeah. There's several things. And I think the thing we foot stomped the most on really is if you are a smoker, stop smoking. That's the best thing you can do overall, the easiest thing you can do for your health. And if you don't smoke, don't start. But really, just keeping a normal diet, keeping your nutrition up helps healing. And then, also if you want to get outside, especially now that the weather is getting warmer to get outside and take a walk. And something as simple as walking every day for about 20 minutes can really improve your cardiovascular health and make your whole process of surgery both from the procedure and the recovery go a whole lot smoother.

Host: And I imagine you also spend some time clearing up misunderstandings about general surgery. And what are some of those misconceptions that you find yourself addressing maybe often?

Bruce Lynch, MD: People specifically want to know, as far as the surgeries we do, are there going to be incisions. And you see billboards out there that advertise things like incisionless surgery and things like that, which are just really clever plays on words. And so, basically getting down to the nitty-gritty of what each procedure involves and what may or may not be true, there's a lot of information out there, which is both a blessing and a curse, because it's not all necessarily accurate. So, helping the patients navigate to those reliable sources that they can find on the internet to read more about their conditions and differentiating what's fact from fiction.

Host: And we kind of talked a little bit earlier, now there have been a lot of improvements in the postoperative care, can you talk about some of the recent changes that are helping patients recover faster and with fewer complications?

Bruce Lynch, MD: Yeah. I think we've been, really over the past few years, been able to realize that there's a lot of steps as far as pain management that we can take during the operation to help the patient be less painful afterwards and more into their recovery. And I think things like using more local anesthetic as well as regional blocks, we have an excellent anesthesia team here that gives us the full range of pain management capabilities that you could find anywhere in the country to make our patients comfortable after surgery. And a patient who wakes up from surgery without pain is three steps ahead of the game in their recovery. And that really helps in the long run.

Host: And for people watching who might be wondering when to seek help, what signs or symptoms should prompt someone to speak with their primary care provider about possibly getting evaluated by a general surgeon?

Bruce Lynch, MD: Well, I think for the things we see most commonly, pain after eating for your gallbladder, pain in the right lower side of your abdomen, would be an indication of appendicitis. And then, some other common conditions we see are things like breast masses and stuff like that, so a palpable or changing mass in the breast.

And then, the other thing that honestly is most personal to me as someone who's had melanoma are skin lesions that are changing in color or size. Those are always very important not to overlook.

Host: And as we close out today's episode, we'd love to hear your final thoughts. What would you like people to take away from this conversation?

Bruce Lynch, MD: I would like them to take away that they have the advantage of coming to see us at Mile Bluff. But really, there are a whole continuum of care from whether they have an infant or a 90-year-old that we can take care of pretty much anything they need. There's always things that you can go to a specialist for a long way away.

But the vast majority of their care they can get right here, they can get it from people that really care about them, and their community and get the best possible care that they could get anywhere without having to travel a long distance.

Host: Well, thank you, Dr. Lynch. That wraps up this episode of Mile Bluff Unscripted. We appreciate you spending your time with us, and we appreciate Dr. Lynch for sharing his expertise on general surgery. To explore more topics and connect with our providers, visit milebluff.com. Take care, and we'll see you next time.