Weblog » Archives » August 2007

  • I hate pus

    I realize that, as a general surgery resident, pus is and will always be with me. But the more I deal with it, the less I like it. It's not so much the actual incision and drainage of abscesses that I despise -- it's hav…

  • My Grey Grace

    I used to scoff people who might compare my life as a surgery resident to the more famous, more beautiful, more awkward residents of Seattle Grace. Then I heard this actual conversation between a medical assistant and an…

  • Rise of the machines

    The apartment management has hired a new pest exterminator for the building. They'll be spraying the apartment for yet another round of dead cockroach fun in one week's time.Admittedly, I've been picking up fewer cockroa…

  • Comfortable with what?

    I was on-call for general surgery at a local community hospital when a teenage girl came in the classic signs of appendicitis: nausea, vomiting, fever, vague periumbilical pain that progressed to severe, right lower quad…

  • Terminator 2

    It's become something of a game. Every day I come home from work and put on my slippers. I walk to the kitchen and survey the floor. How many dead cockroaches can I find today?The exterminator came again to my apartment …

  • Second chance

    It was 3 a.m. I stood by Mr. Wilson's ICU bed, nervously watching the monitor.Twenty-four hours ago ago we had received word of an available liver in Orange County to replace Mr. Wilson's failing first liver transplant.T…

  • Procurement

    I stood in the crowded OR, surrounding by a bustling number of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and technicians. The operating room was large -- one of the rooms usually reserved for heart surgery. I realized that th…

  • Flyin' like a rock star

    The entire transplant team huddled around the computer monitor in the ICU. The numbers were clear: Mr. Wilson's day-old liver transplant wasn't working. He was in florid liver failure.The transplant surgeon pursed his li…

  • The finer points of transplanting a kidney

    Transplanting a kidney involves anastomosing (i.e., sewing together) the new kidney's artery, vein, and ureter into the recipient's native artery, vein, and bladder, respectively. It's delicate surgery -- much more delic…

  • Cue too

    Being on call every other night for transplant surgery has a way of draining a guy like nothing else. Suddenly the desire to do all those things in life associated with relaxing and unwinding (e.g,. watching TV, reading …

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