Gotta love it when you arrive at 7am for a day that doesn't have cases until almost 2pm. Coming in any later just isn't an option, so you chew on it, bring a book and just accept your lot as a peon. To stave off sheer boredom I went wandering the floor, chatted up my IM attending (who gave me an A+ and a stellar review) and learned a few things about Pulomnary emnoli, DIC, and "poor prognosis diagnoses." I am actually quite glad I went wandering, because it beat sitting around not doing anything.

Later, I was able to scrub in on a mass excision case. The doctor said "let the student close." So from start to finish I closed. I was ridiculously proud of myself.

Later in the day began the hours-long vascular marathon of popliteal embolism removal. It was so epic I was called to wipe the doctor's face free of blood...The surgery lasted almost four hours due to a host of complications and annoyances, such as luckyone banging his head no less than three times on the overhead lights. Blast ye short people!!!

You Know You're in Medical School When...

...You use an expired suture kit to sew on a button. Yeah, I used double and single handed knots, too!

Today's Dinner:

Rump roast. Well done. Whose rump? Mine and my surgery mates. I do not appreciate having to eat somebody else's crow.

Today's Awesome Surgery

Secondary to a pneumothorax, and emphysema, I was able to scrub in a thoracotomy. We removed the part of the upper lobe of the right lung that had blebs the size of golf balls. It was intense!! I loved every minute of it. I had never seen lungs in a living person before!

Election Night

It was a nasty night weather-wise in Chicago last night. I didn't want to go anywhere, and was fortunate that  a few friends and I watched the returns from my place. We were all over the place on our political ideas, and yet we all managed to get along and have a good time, understanding this is the process that has kept us going. I looked out the window this morning and the sky was still up there.  Life will go on, and the world will continue turning.

I can't recall how many people I wanted to smack over the last few months for various idiotic things posted on Facebook basically saying "You should vote for X because if you don't it will be the end of America" or "Well because your this, this, or that, then you should vote for Y because how can you vote for X if you believe what you believe??!?"  Really? You’ve apparently decided that I am incapable of making up my own mind. Elections and airport security highlight just how stupid and short-sighted people can really be. 

-- "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." ~   George Carlin

Good to know?

Incident from Friday night:

Mr. Nicks: "Hey man, you look like you know where to find good coke. Can you help me out man I'm dying for some coke." My first thought was dude just go to the bar and get one. THEN I realized OHHHH! he wasn't talking about the Cola variety.

Me: " Man I'm sorry I couldn't even begin to tell you where to find some."
Perhaps I should have sent him to Englewood or Gresham, where the cracked variety can be easily located at any street corner.

Sssssahhhhhh

My first Saturday off in a month. Wow what a difference! First thing I did this morning was to scrub my apartment top to bottom, and did it need it!!!!!!

It was nice to be able to enjoy my Friday night with friends in River North--though I stayed far longer than I intended and ended up taking a cab back home.