Blood, Guts, and Conservative Gore

My workweek started out at 4:50am this morning! Which really was 6:30, but from alarm on, I was officially up in the 4s. Why you ask? Ok, I'll tell. I was watching surgeries! Having never had a surgery, nor witnessed one as of this am, I am now proud and excited to say I have seen 7 total knee replacements! Which means I am basically an expert. I was in the room, wore the scrubs, the facemask, the booties, even got flecked with some bodily substance at one point! Biohazard? yes. Initially, they showed me the chairs in the room, told me if I felt faint that was fine, normal even. They didnt know they were dealing with a champ, obviously. 7 surgeries and 11 hours later I was officially declared the longest lasting observer ever! Last Intern Standing, check. It's amazing how quickly it becomes routine though. That being said, the amount of sawing and hammering and overall trauma associated with a total joint replacement is uncanny. As is listening to the conversations that take place during said procedure. If I learned one thing today it was: if given the opportunity I am presented with two potential future husbands and one is a surgeon and the other is, whatever, go with surgeon. Economic depression my ass. His lifestyle was one I both envy and despise. Example:

Dr: "I took my son driving yesterday for the first time, it was quite the right of passage."

Asst: "In the Porsch?"

Dr: "No no"

Asst: "SUV?"

Dr: "No."

Asst: "the jaguar?"

Dr: "No, just my wife's old suburban".

Salary aside, he was very nice, talked me through many aspects of each procedure and answered all my questions, and is allowing me to come back on wed to see two other surgeries (shldr and hip this time, I'm good on the knee thing). It's cool because two of the patients I saw today just might end up in rehab, which means I'll get to see them start to finish.

The only downside to today, was the Dr's discussion of how despicable it was that there'd been a gay pride parade in Olympia yesterday--apparently he took it as a personal affront that "they" had the audacity to show up in costume and parade about in what was certainly an attempt at ruining father's day. And if not to ruin father's day, than it was definitely in honor of the solstice, which, as everybody knows, is when all the "witches and warlocks come out of hiding". This coming from a man who two seconds later when asked if he'd seen any good movies, starts talking about one involving WWII that was, in his opinion great, because it involved Nazis getting blown to bits "which is always a good thing". Which then prompted a shift in conversation to more current genocides, how atrocious he believes them to be, and how depressing it is that for as far as mankind has come, we still can be so inhumane. For someone who bases their profession on logic, the hypocrisy here just astounds me. In fact, I had to practice some deep breathing and full blown empathy to not let the conversation cloud my otherwise delightful experience in the OR (operating room that is). Just to keep on this tangent for a bit longer, the Dr also mentioned, bringing up the parade again hours later, that he couldnt even stomach a different, yet to him similarly disturbing, parade honoring mother earth, during which everyone dresses like animals/creatures and wanders around the capitol. In his next breath he informed us that what he DID want to see, was "that garden show" that takes place in homes and parks around Olympia, because "it's gotta be just beautiful". Again, the ridiculousness of someone who cannot stomach the thought of a parade that celebrates the earth (aka nature) expressing interest in attending a tour of just that, except with the safer "garden" label, blows me away. So maybe I'd rather not marry a surgeon....