Surgery and Tacos

1. I spent 11.5 hours in surgery yesterday. By choice. I'm not on rotations yet. But now I'm dreading them even more. My feet, calves, knees, and back still ache. Were the surgeries cool? Yeah -- a C-section, two thermachoice procedures to destroy the endometrium, two different types of bladder tacks, a hysterectomy with left oophorectomy, and an exploratory surgery for cystic ovaries. The hysterectomy ended with a surprise diagnosis of a rock-hard colon, so they ended up doing an emergency right hemicolectomy, and after they took out the bad part of the colon, I got to open it up -- the tumor was really gross. And the patient had had a normal colonoscopy four months ago... so either someone missed something really obvious or that's a super-tumor. The exploratory surgery was mildly interesting because the cystic ovary they ended up removing was adhesed to the bowel, and it took them forever to figure out how to cut them apart safely, but they ended up nicking the bowel anyway. But then it was still bizarre, because the bowel didn't look right -- it ended up that the patient had a bowel resection years ago, so the ovary had adhesed to all the scar tissue. The nicked part of the bowel was actually a blind pouch created by the bowel surgery, so it was all OK -- it just took FOREVER to get the ovary out and get the bowel stitched up, and my feet were hurting so badly already that I wasn't really paying too much attention. I was also standing at the patient's head with the anesthesiologist, so I ended up talking to the anesthesiologists a lot. They seem to have cool jobs, also (and their pay isn't bad, either!). Can I see myself doing surgery? Yes. Can I see myself doing anesthesiology? Yes. Can I see myself doing OB? Yes. But, I knew as much already -- I think I'm going to like all my rotations. Sigh.

2. We drove through Taco Bell today after taking the kittens to the vet. All over the windows were signs advocated the "4th meal" -- the meal you eat BETWEEN dinner and breakfast. Yes, Taco Bell is open late. Yes, if you're up that late, usually while being drunk, Taco Bell can be quite good. But does it need its own advertising? Probably not. In fact, you're not supposed to eat within two hours of going to sleep if you want to keep a healthy weight, so you definitely shouldn't be scarfing tacos and then hitting the sack. Ick. But also so yummy.