Comments on: Anecdotes: General Surgery

By: Dr. Alice

Dr. Alice — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:43:39 +0000

Zac – Just discovered your blog. It’s hilarious. Mind if I link to you?

Great story, rofl. So exactly true. In my experience, the key is not drinking. ;)

By: Avaron

Avaron — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:40:20 +0000

Yea, surgery can be rough. I remember I was in a case once from 9am to 5pm, no breaks for lunch, no breaks to pee. And, on top of that, the warmer underneath the patient ruptured spilling water all over the floor. We couldn’t move the patient since the procedure was already 2 hrs in, so what did they decide to do instead? Oh yea, warm the ENTIRE OR up to like 90 degrees to keep the patient warm. We were dying underneath the scrubs/gowns for the next… six… hours…

Happy blogging!
-Avaron
http://scrubnotes.blogspot.com

By: Bongi

Bongi — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 09:17:17 +0000

hmmm, sid. i must unfortunately confess, i am not as endowed as you. i also seldom wear those thyroid protection devices, even when doing an intraoperative gram. hence i did not have …um…closure all the way up to the mouth. good on you, though.

By: Sid Schwab

Sid Schwab — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:13:45 +0000

In surgery training we were told not to reveal this; but since this post and the comments thereon, if one were to put them together, actually come close to revealing it, I’ll spill (of course, it only applies to male surgeons; and it confirms what one might expect, anatomically, about those males that choose surgery):during long cases we pee into our mouth.

By: Dr. Val

Dr. Val — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:47:55 +0000

Great story! No sleeping, no urinating, no chewing. The three reasons I didn’t become a surgeon, in descending order of importance for me. :)

By: Prudence

Prudence — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:27:38 +0000

That is certainly one funny anecdote! Yup, I do have similar experiences during my clerkship days when one learns how to gobble up lunch in the space of 5 minutes and to have a urinary bladder with larger capacity for holding urine.

By: Mexico Medical Student » Grand Rounds 4:09

Mexico Medical Student » Grand Rounds 4:09 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:46:10 +0000

[...] on the lighter side, Zac at Agraphia had a story about a particularly reptilian surgeon which had me belly laughing from a similar experience. Mark O’Connor is of a newer breed of [...]

By: liz

liz — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:12:29 +0000

haha this was worth the wait.

By: Dana Charlee

Dana Charlee — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:40:33 +0000

I have no idea how ppl in the OR can be in there for hours without a break. That and it’s farking freezing in there. I always felt the need to run laps to get the blood back into my toes.
/will never work in the OR.
//be careful with the dinner invites. i just might show up at your door one day, it gets lonely in northern vermont.

By: enrico

enrico — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:52:14 +0000

I had the EXACT same sandwich experience with a surgeon (not the one I was with) that was in the OR lounge. I’m talking fingers poking out the last millimeters of bread sponginess to get it in that maw. I don’t see how he breathed, let alone swallowed.

As for your ballsy move of self-preserving sustenance, you clearly handled the “pressure” well. heh. Blowing chunks from behind a mask is generally considered bad form. Negative bonus points for field-contaminating spillover.

P.S. I think the proper spelling (for the benefit of non-Spanglish speakers) would be “sangweech.” ;)