...slept too long for my post-call nap and ended up with a blog!

So, after a long night on call (8/31-9/1), I ran a couple of errands, ate some lunch, and climbed in bed around 1:00 pm for my now-standard postcall nap. I felt so free not setting an alarm and it had worked so well last time, I didn't give it a second thought. Well, I remember waking up and seeing that it was 4:00 pm, but the next thing I remember is waking up AT 8:45 pm!!!

After realizing I'd missed the day and become a creature of the night, I proceeded to do some life maintenance chores (bills, emails, etc). And create a blog. About to hit the sack (again) so I can begin my life again for tomorrow (9/2).

and now, a feature of my new blog: favorite case moments from the last couple days

As we're about to begin surgery, I'm prepping the patient and helping the nurses get the room/patient ready for the surgeons. We're kind of discussing the patient, and I realize I've heard about this person during giant rounds (when our 3-page, size 8 font, master excel document LIST is discussed) I'm familiar with only~20% of those patients; however, the interesting stories catch my attention. This lady had some sort of abdominal surgery a couple weeks ago. For unknown reasons, she stuck a Q-tip in her incision (a 8" midline vertical incision that she definitely had to undress in order to access)...my guess = an itch. Somehow she "lost" that Q-tip in the incision, so she went for a second Q-tip. After losing that, she went for a tiny pair of shaving tweezers ~2", plastic. And, after losing those, she goes for the big boys -- a standard metal pair of eyebrow tweezers. The first three objects do not show up on CT, meaning we do not know where the heck they are. Our job as surgeons? retrieve the objects. It was kind of fun, but mostly dissatisfying -- we only got the metal ones. Follow up step 1: put on one labyrinth of a bandage, hoping she can't bust up in there. Step 2: psych consult. Step 3: if she fails step 1 and busts up in there, she's getting bilateral casts on her arms.

Can't make this stuff up.

Good night!