Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Work
...doesn't feel like work. I keep feeling like I should be on the shop floor doing something.
Being a surgeon seems to be about eating constantly. After the morning round, we eat breakfast (sponsored twice a week by the department, in which case either KFC or burger king, and the rest of the week by the consultants), after breakfast comes lunch. (sponsored by the consultants) Sometimes there's a trifling little clinic in between.
Yesterday, drowsing off post-prandially in clinic whilst pretending to see patients I wondered if maybe I've just gotten attuned to the A&E routine; but that seemed so much more fun, sticking things into people, summarily dishing out meds and trying to patch them up in a hurry so that someone else could sort them out. Now I'm the chap supposed to sort em out, it's bewildering and amazing how insignificant all my previous medical experience has become in the grand scheme of "further management".
Several patients have had particularly amusing histories including someone who abused himself with sharp objects, but for fear of breaching confidentiality I shan't go into detail. shame.
Oh and a general reminder to self - next time I walk into a shop feeling an acute urge to buy something... what exactly it was I can't remember (I always get this. I always need to buy something till I actually get to the shop when it mysteriously evaporates from memory)
...it's a permanent marker.
I dunno if I remembered to mention this, but everyone in the states seems to be counting - not calories, but carbohydrates. It was mind-boggling to me how they managed to make everything carbohydrate free, from french fries to milkshakes. Makes you wonder whether there's any role for naturally grown food anymore. I guess food-shaped-and-scented synthetic gunk with 100% preservatives snd 0% natural goodnes is the way of the future.
Back to my acute surgical management textbook..
Being a surgeon seems to be about eating constantly. After the morning round, we eat breakfast (sponsored twice a week by the department, in which case either KFC or burger king, and the rest of the week by the consultants), after breakfast comes lunch. (sponsored by the consultants) Sometimes there's a trifling little clinic in between.
Yesterday, drowsing off post-prandially in clinic whilst pretending to see patients I wondered if maybe I've just gotten attuned to the A&E routine; but that seemed so much more fun, sticking things into people, summarily dishing out meds and trying to patch them up in a hurry so that someone else could sort them out. Now I'm the chap supposed to sort em out, it's bewildering and amazing how insignificant all my previous medical experience has become in the grand scheme of "further management".
Several patients have had particularly amusing histories including someone who abused himself with sharp objects, but for fear of breaching confidentiality I shan't go into detail. shame.
Oh and a general reminder to self - next time I walk into a shop feeling an acute urge to buy something... what exactly it was I can't remember (I always get this. I always need to buy something till I actually get to the shop when it mysteriously evaporates from memory)
...it's a permanent marker.
I dunno if I remembered to mention this, but everyone in the states seems to be counting - not calories, but carbohydrates. It was mind-boggling to me how they managed to make everything carbohydrate free, from french fries to milkshakes. Makes you wonder whether there's any role for naturally grown food anymore. I guess food-shaped-and-scented synthetic gunk with 100% preservatives snd 0% natural goodnes is the way of the future.
Back to my acute surgical management textbook..
