smirkingatyou

Today we had our regular afternoon OB department meeting. It started slowly because people were telling stories and chatting. Someone brought up the book "The House of God" by Samuel Shem, MD. It's famous in the medical community, loved by some, reviled by others. (If any of you would like some dark humor and a bit of insight into what your doctor has been through,...
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I had a near-miss with drama friday night. I went downtown with my usual crew, and before long, there were a dozen of us playing pool and raising an enjoyable amount of Hell. I was having a good time, but decided to head home around midnight. The bar had gotten annoyingly crowded, my pool game was off, and, honestly, I had a feeling that stupidity...
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i'll be spending the next 36 hours at the hospital. oh, and i found ants this morning. i suppose it's a bit of a blessing. because of them, i threw away a bag of chips. i don't really need the junk food, but the ants still suck.

Pregnancy, that magical time in a young woman's life when a med student sits her down and says, "No, you're not going to give birth this week, but you are going to fill this prescription so you can kill that infection. PS, that wasn't your water."

And the circle of life carries on.

Random Things From Rencent Conversations

-a doctor: "They can put ice on the outside. No ice in the vagina . . . or popsicles."

-a doctor "The ancient Greeks thought the gods were causing these women to have seizures. Unfortunately, there is no way to test this theory."
-me: "We could get pregnant women to blaspheme and see what happens."

-a doctor: "I can't hear...
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i just scrubbed in for my first major surgery, a c-section. 2 hours ago i was wrist deep in another human being touching her liver. color me psyched.

asdf jkl;

Over 12 hours in the hospital today. I'm dog tired and very glad to now have my shoes off. My day was a parade of minor victories and defeats. That's the way of it. I learn what I can and move on.

One of my patients speaks no English. Neither does her husband. I know how to say "How much to make the mattress squeak?"...
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We're just students, but we had heard the stories. Some of the older people had seen it happen. They would speak of it in whispers, as if the whispers could stop it from happening again. Someone heard.

I don't know how it happened. I didn't see it, myself, only the results. Perhaps it's for the best. We are trained to handle the event, not question...
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