Sarcasm

The surgeon, Dr.TNT, who I was working with Friday, the last straw that pushed me to move on the job search, lost his thin veil of self-control right after I left. I had relief from the new* 7-7 RN, Dave* took over at 5, I cleaned up and helped him get started, then scampered home. He would finish the case that should only run about 20 min, then pull case carts for the next day.

I heard on Monday, in couched terms from the charge nurse, that Dr. TNT had been highly inappropriate toward staff. Not for the first time, he tried to get me fired my first year there, and nearly succeeded. We warily 'got along' after, and I've worked with him through many stretches. Just not much for the past few years.

Yesterday, I heard the rest of the story. Dr. TNT left the resident to teach the med student. It was 6, and we are scheduled until 5:30. We don't object to staying because the surgery is taking more time, but dithering is verboten. And it's expensive to keep staff late, since we start getting time and a half. It's Friday. The charge nurse and the scrub objected to this sort of teaching at this time, annoyed, but in a "WTF dude?" way.

Dr. TNT explodes.

"CALM THE FUCK DOWN!!! YOU ALL NEED TO JUST CALM THE FUCK DOWN!!!!!"

Whoa. I mean, I knew he'd been winding himself up all day, and I'm not at all surprized that he would do that. Still, totally unprofessional and mean. So, they called my dear, deadpan dry, sarcastic and silent surgeon, Dr.G, who deals with these sorts of things.

Dr. TNT was the one to tell the story of being a resident with Dr.G, trying to chat to him and asking chipper questions, and Dr.G shuts him down with "I"m comfortable with uncomfortable silences." This is the story that convinced me I would do just fine working with Dr.G, and I always have.

Our nurse manager bit her lip not to laugh when Dr.G came back to tell her "surgeons have feelings too, you know."

I kept imagining Dr.G saying this all day long yesterday, and giggling to myself.


Long ago, when I was starting to scrub liver transplants, I worked with Dr.Gush and Dr. Silent. Dr. Gush would either pick, pick, pick about every little thing, never letting it go. Or, and this was worse, he would praise and praise until I wanted to puke. This day it was the latter. "Oh, it's so good getting you scrubbing these cases, you're really good at this, we really appreciate....blah, blah, (bleeehcch.)" I look at Dr. Silent next to me, and I notice his eyes crinkle up, so I know something is coming. He's always respectful of staff, never saw him angry. He was thorough, thoughtful & kind always.

He says slyly to me, in a monotone, "...trained monkey could do your job."

Popped Dr. Gush's bubble, and I bit my lips to not laugh out loud. It was not at all a slap at me, it came with the implication that a trained monkey could do HIS job as well. It was perfect, the comic timing was flawless.


This morning as Dylan left, so did our neighbor, who did an odd u-turn. So I stepped out, and the north end of our street is closed off, sounds of trucks backing up, big "Road Closed" signs at the south corner.



Dylan says, "That's a bad sign"

I say, "It's a perfectly good sign, someone made that you know."

Made him laugh.

Eleanor kneading and purring on my chest this morning, getting her head massaged. Zeppo watching. When she was done, jumped off. Zeppo started to follow her. Then he stopped, turned to me, and fast-kneaded my abdomen, walked on me, let me pet him briefly, then jumped off. Eleanor has a slow, soft quiet purr and a languorous knead. Zeppo is all presto and noise, loud purr and quick paws.

I'm getting overtime pay this week.


A local story following a flooded library renovation.


*Dave† had been a scrub with us while going through nursing school, so knew Dr. TNT from before, as well as in his RN position at the Main. So, I wasn't dumping a new RN into this mess.


†You know, Dave. One of two at the moment at work.