Surgery and Symphony

"So what makes you want to be a Colon Surgeon?" This was the question asked of me by the lead surgeon in the operating room in the hospital. I was standing not 3 feet away, watching as he reached into the hole in the patient's abdomen, pulled out a couple of feet of the colon, and let it slip through his fingers back into the abdomen. I chuckled nervously, and said, "well, I haven't decided if I want to specialize in any specific type of surgery yet."

This was my introduction into Surgery. My 3rd rotational night as a MedEx started out in the Operation Room with a good friend that I used to go to church with, Michelle. We watched the surgeon perform a colonectomy and a gallbladder removal. The colon had cancer in it, and so they removed about 1 and 1/2 feet. So the person had a hard time walking after that, cause they only had half of a foot left. And no right. Can you imagine walking with only half of your left foot, and no right?? Except that's not exactly what happened. What I meant to say was that a foot and a half of the colon was removed. I didn't know that colons had feet, but I guess they do. After all, I watched them being removed. As for the gallbladder, the removal was unexpected. Let me rephrase that. They meant to remove it, but they didn't know they were going to remove until after the surgery started. I'll let the surgeon's wisdom explain.
Lead Surgeon: "Is that the gallbladder?? Hmmm.....it's now the largest organ in the body."
Back-up Surgeon: "Excuse me, but the skin is the body's largest organ."
LS: "Ha. Notice I said 'largest organ in the body', not of the body. Anyway, that's not a good thing, that the gallbladder's that large...Let's take it out." *turns to Michelle and me* "We weren't planning on doing this originally, but it'll save problems for the patient later if we take it out now."
I'm like, 'okay, whatever you think is best, cause I sure don't know what you know.'
After spending two hours in the OR, I took a two hour rotation in Neuro-Intermediate, where I had my first rotation. I met this really neat guy. He was telling me all these stories about when he was in the Navy. He was so incredibly funny. Example:
Nurse Aide: George*, this is Josiah. He's a Medical Explorer, following me around tonight."
George: Well, good to meet you."
Nurse Aide: *speaking to me, but still facing George* "He's a truck driver."
George: *to me* "You're a truck driver??? You sure don't look like a truck driver."

Or how about when I first met him.
Nurse Aide: *before we enter room* "This next guy is hilarious. He's always making funny comments or taking something that anyone would normally know what you meant, and acting like it means something different."
*entering room*
George: "Where you been?? I've been waiting my whole life for you to come. I always knew you were the one for me."
Nurse Aide: *turns to me* "See what I mean?"

I went to the Symphony performance tonight. They had an amazing cellist. Just phenomonal. Incredible emotion. Wonderful control. And Jewish to boot.
Need I say more?? Oh yeah. You should have been there. It was amazinging, phenomonal, incredible, emotional, wonderful, controlled...wait, I've already said most of that. We'll just stick with the "you should have been there" part.

*Patient's name changed so as to not violate HIPAA laws.