Yourself

Be yourself. One of those awful instructions given to the young. Parents, teachers, adults in general, tell them from the beginning how to be, to be good, dress them, correct them in every detail. Hard for a child to know how much of it is necessary teaching and how much the personal preference of the teacher, how much their own self. Very few parents are good at bringing out their offspring's own best character, without imposing their own, and I expect they never say, "be yourself."

Surgeons who are consistent, reliable, and communicate clearly with their staff, and welcome questions are so easy to work for, and with. The difficult surgeons who don't have a routine, are always using different equipment and supplies, ignore question and anger easily, are the ones who always say, "I do this the same way every time!" The good ones who actually are pretty much the same every time, never say that.

People who apologize saying, "I'm not usually like this," frequently are. When I find myself using that phrase, I look very closely at how I've been behaving recently.


~~~~~~~~Grossness alert ~~~~~~~~~~



Had to get on the floor, and reach under the blankets under the sterile field to attach the hose to the bair hugger warmer for a patient. S. laughed, and I said "Dignity. Always, Dignity." Yup, I got the degree, means I'm the one wiping up the floor, crawling in and under and through. For laparoscopic inguinal hernia repairs, I commonly had to get down, reach under, and make sure the testicle was in the scrotum - as opposed to anywhere else. Dignity, I'm telling you. The worst experience was going under a prone patient in a spine contraption, my head sideways, and drool went in my ear. Ugggghhh... . To this day, it still makes me shudder a little. Worse than shit, piss blood, crotch cheese, or bubbles of mucous in any other configuration.

Dignity. Part of the job.