When he's having a tough day, orthopaedic surgeon Mat Brick likes to look at pictures of his patients doing what they love all over the world.
He chats to Anna Thomas about what makes a good surgeon, his stint as a professional athlete and his favourite TV and music.
Dr Mat Brick Photo: Orthosports NZ
Dr Brick grew up as "a kiwifruit kid" in Te Puke and then went to high school in Dunedin.
Because of his strong academic performance, he was encouraged to go to medical school - and did that.
"I finished medical school and thought 'what did I just do? I didn't have any reasons of my own to be a doctor. That's when sport was a very handy distraction while I thought about what I wanted to do with his life."
After medical school, Brick spent five years as a professional athlete, representing New Zealand at world-championship level in duathlon, triathlon and cycling.
Around the time an Achilles tendon injury slowed down his training, Dr Brick also realised that if he wanted to be a medical specialist - the only kind of doctor he felt suited to become - it was now or never.
"I'm a control freak and I didn't want to be referring on to other surgeons to do whatever needed to be done."
He promised myself that he wouldn't be too proud to bow out and do something else if the job didn't feel right, but he loved surgery from day one.
The first five years in the job are the most stressful, Dr Brick says, but that lessens over time.
Dealing with complications - as every surgeon must do - remains one of the most difficult aspects of the job, he says.
"It's tempting for the surgeon to run in the opposite direction and deny responsibility at any level but what that patient needs is extra care. And that's tough because suddenly you've gone off the path that both surgeon and patient had hoped would happen."
Unrealistic expectations about recovery are another big challenge he faces.
"Patients will hear selectively… our brain almost automatically dismisses the not-so-good stuff but recovery from surgery is a process. There's barely an operation that doesn't take two years to reach your potential post-operatively ... Patients want to be back up and running in six weeks' time and most of the time that's not going to happen."
Mastering surgery is like becoming fluent in a foreign language, Dr Brick says.
"For big chunks of the operation, the brain is almost on autopilot and my executive thinking is just making decisions of what I have to do next and my hands just do it."
If a surgeon is emotional by nature, they need to learn how to turn this off while they're operating, he says.
"It's important to be empathetic and know how to relate to our patients when they're awake and talking to us but once the operating lights switch on, it's easier if the surgeon can compartmentalise that. It's now a task. For an hour the person stops being a person and becomes a task. And when they wake up they start being a person again."
Performing surgery, Dr Brick says he's seen some really surprising tattoos but rarely hears surprising confessions as people slip into unconsciousness.
"There's an idea that when we give lorazepam - which is the stuff that makes you feel really good before you go under -that people will spill the beans. It's really disappointing how few secrets we get."
Mat recommends:
Still Life by Sarah Winman (a novel)
- Listen to Sarah Winman talk about Still Life with Jesse Mulligan here
Succession (a TV show available to stream on NEON) and White Lotus (a TV show available to stream on Netflix)
'Who wants to watch well-balanced people on television? We hope to have that in our own home but when we switch the TV on we want nutcases."
