Workin' workin' workin' day and night ...

I have two projects due Friday, one is an article critique related to my Master's thesis, and the other is a 30-minute powerpoint presentation on short-bowel syndrome that I am to present to the Attendings and Residents. After sitting in on their presentations, I know that it has to be top-notch all-blowout. So yea, no pressure there! I've been working on both so I should be good. But after 11-12 hour days, it's tough to sit down and just start thinking while I type and format, you know? Whatever, you do what you have to do. I will say that I never used to be a coffee drinker until now.

Surgeries have been wonderful. I assisted in a supra-cervical hysterectomy today, where the uterus had grown fibrous. What we took out didn't even look like a uterus, it was this misshapen thing filled and covered with hard growths and nodules ... sort of like a large, hard, bulbous root thing, like a deflated basketball that had been dipped in some kind of super-strength rubber cement. It was great to help take something out of a body which was then going to feel and function so much better. We left her ovaries and cervix, so she'll still have her hormones as well as better vaginal/pelvic support.

One funny thing happened today ... I was not scrubbed in, for a simple incision and drainage of a large sebaceous cyst on the back of a man's head. So the Attending was working on the right of it, and the Resident was working on the left of it, and I was standing behind them in the middle, just observing from a safe distance of about 4 feet or so. Even tho I wasn't scrubbed in and sterile, I was still wearing my safety glasses and nose/mouth mask, and good thing too, as the cyst decided to erupt from the local anesthetic that they had injected into it, 'peeing' its contents straight out into the air, about 4 feet or so, all over my forehead and shirt. I was in shock for a moment, not only because it felt like someone was peeing on me in a steady stream, but because of the stench from the pus that was now on my skin and clothing. Good times, good times.

I'd love to share more of these joyous experiences, but it's time to get back to work. Until next time!

;)