There is a surgeon who comes to our hospital who performs only one type of surgery. Nothing unusual about that, is there?
He actually is on staff at several area hospitals, doing surgery at each one about once a week.
But what distinguishes this surgeon from all the others is the nature of his business. He is known as the […]

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On call this past weekend, I was paged to the post-partum floor to evaluate a young woman who had vaginally delivered a healthy baby boy 16 hours ago. Her chief complaint? Intractable back pain.
[Background: She had delivered 2 babies aided by an epidural block in the past, and complained of back pain during this pregnancy, which […]

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It’s that most wonderful time of the year, and I am gearing up for my annual Christmas call marathon. I go in to work at the hospital on Christmas eve day, and go home the morning after Christmas. Yeah, yeah, it’s about 48 hours, give or take, but it’s a worthwhile thing to do, and […]

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This past Saturday I was covering obstetrics, better known as OB, attending to the needs of women in various stages of labor and delivery.
A woman in the throes of labor is a force to be reckoned with. In between contractions, she is an expectant mom, filled with worries and concerns, generally cooperative and conversant. During […]

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Yesterday, like most days, my patients came in all different shapes, sizes, and situations.
Patient #1 was petite and frail, in her early 60’s, and only 5′ tall. She had the body habitus that we who work in the OR always love to see. Light as a feather, and easily lifted and re-positioned. Which we needed to do […]

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The Operating Room is a whole other universe, and all the usual rules that apply in the outside world tend to fall away in here. That is not to say that the OR is a bad place; quite the opposite, it is a very orderly and territorial environment. It lost its circadian rhythms just moments […]

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The power of our drugs never ceases to amaze me. Take muscle relaxants, for instance. By delivering as little as a teaspoon of a drug like rocuronium or vecuronium, we anesthesia providers can literally paralyze YOU for your surgery. This comes in pretty handy when your surgeon does not want you to move during your operation!

The […]

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My coiffure in the morning really gives me a lift.
But by the end of the day, it’s a collossal flop.
It just doesn’t seem right that at the end of my shift,
My hair should resemble a second-hand mop.
You see, while at work, I must stuff all my hair
Into a flimsy paper bonnet where it cannot be seen.
A […]

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Can anyone listen to that haunting refrain from Eleanor Rigby and not feel its sad message?
“Where do they all come from?”
Many of them come from our local nursing homes, and land in our ERs and ORs. Elderly people with little to no family, or concerned family, to advocate for them. People with chronic decubitus ulcers the […]

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I stockpile sick time.
I mean, like, I NEVER call out sick. Call me superstitious, but I don’t like to anger the “sick gods” and lie about a non-existent illness. That’s just me.
I also don’t bother with the flu shot. Call me stupid, but why would I want to introduce a dead virus into my body […]

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