Finally, some action. Went on a donor run with an attending I haven’t worked much with before.
My main conclusion from this is, that the popular conception of surgeon’s hands as delicate is quite wrong.
The attending handed me about eight liters of ice to break up (to pack into the abdominal cavity to cool the organs after cross-clamping), and instead of, like other transplant surgeons I’ve worked with, growling in frustration after watching me for five seconds and taking over, left me to finish the job by myself. Which was salutary, but painful. Between the ice and the hammer, and then tying knots in nylon afterwards, my hands are all scraped up, and my arm is going to be sore for days. I need to take up weightlifting.
The surgeon not knowing me was also nice because he assumed that anyone sent would be familiar with the proceedings, and let me actually cut a lot of things. Since he kept talking as though I was a senior resident (I did explain, eventually), presumably I didn’t do too bad of a job. Real surgery, finally. Now I just need to work on the sewing-up-after-cutting part.
Cut On The Dotted Line 
September 28, 2008 at 12:07 pm
What, no slush machines? They make perfect ice for packing and there is no manual labor involved.
September 29, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Why aren’t you noticing that this is a sexist pig of a comment? For goodness sake, if you said, boy, I’ve noticed that men can only think of one thing at a time, which is why you usually don’t hire women, because once you catch sight of the boobs, you can’t function, every guy in the room would think 1)you are the bitch from hell, 2) that you are a wacko feminist. Instead, you are busy internalizing the comment, and evaluating whether or not it was correct. Jeez! If that male doctor isn’t thinking about lots of stuff when he is retracting, and isn’t thinking about the anesthesia, then he isn’t doing his job properly. What a horse’s patootie.
Stand up for yourself, at least in your own mind! Be mad, at stupid ass comments.
September 30, 2008 at 6:32 pm
MMT – They make sterile slush?
KT – No, you’re the one being sexist, with a feminist twist. It is legitimate to discuss the differences between men and women. We are equal, not identical or interchangeable.
Why are women freely allowed to say that we’re better at communication and empathy, but men aren’t allowed to say that they’re better with spacial concepts and abstract ideas? The X and Y chromosomes influence more than anatomy, but it’s become heresy in academia to say so. I have no problem with an experienced attending saying that men have one kind of talent and women have another. He wasn’t being derogatory, he was making an honest assessment, and the women in the room took it in good turn.