Scalpel's Edge

A surgeon's notes

Pulling weeds

Although it is still the first week of my new position, I am starting to feel my way. I spent the day yesterday helping operate on varicose veins, which is satisfying in a very similar way to weeding garden beds. My supervising consultant was a bright young surgeon, and I remembered the pleasure of discussing surgery, techniques and plans, and attempting to perform well on the neverending quiz.

I am not experienced in this area (vascular surgery), and I am still completely confuddled by my patients. This means I have difficulty detecting when something I am saying sounds ludicrous. On the ward round today, I dug myself a hole by mixing two patients with incompatible diseases and treatment plans. And yesterday’s bright young surgeon dead-panned me into digging further. Finally, my absurd-o-meter pinged and I had to admit my mistake. I forgot this bit of surgical training. Good grief, Charlie Brown. Tomorrow, I do better.

One response to “Pulling weeds”

  1. rlbates says:

    Yes, you will. 🙂

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