surgexperiences 116

welcome to surgexperiences, a collection of surgical tales. pull up a chair and engulf yourself in close up stories of surgery.

lets kick off with what i experienced as a most disturbing story about a threat. with all the people surgeons deal with, occasionally one is bound to run into a whackjob. dr bates, keep yourself safe. my favorite quilt maker also talks about how some patients can be a nightmare. but her worst?? i think not.

the privilege of being allowed into a very intimate time of a person's life is beautifully illustrated by buckeye. he also brings us a thought provoking post looking at the line between life and death. in the present age, where exactly does this line lie?

surgical emphysema! if it didn't imply bad things, we would all love it. so go and crunch some crepitus with aggravated.

a typical story about the dangers of walking your grandmother to church is brought to us by medstudent101. i'm sure everyone in surgery has dealt with this exact patient in their practice. also take a look at the very relevant cartoon on the top left.

chris links to a story reminding us who the real victims of war are.

sterileeye brings us two great posts. the first is one more educational post about a gastrectomy and a bit more. the second touches on something dear to all surgeons' hearts. the right to say what they want to during operations. just try to remember when the patient is awake. there are also some good comments.

if you want to have an idea what it's like in an operation, there is only one place to stop. sid once again paints a beautiful picture for the less initiated. because, yes sid, it is beautiful.

herrera gives an educational piece on dealing with cholesterol. nice, but i'm just wondering about "reasonable amounts of tobacco".

i personally think keagirl has reason to be smug (even if she is a urologist).

intraoporate orates a beautiful piece about something we all feel, usually too often, exhaustion. for those of you who haven't yet found this gem of a blog, catch a wakeup and take a look.

tia. us africans know what it means. take a look at amanzimtoti's schweet blog.

alice looks at the difficult question of dnr and how to break it to the family.

terry shares a strange quirk of a nurse she had the 'pleasure' of working with.

bruce gets published in the new york times health blog. i was glad to see him discuss a point i recently touched on too, although the question of personal advocacy verses guardian advocacy makes it slightly different.

kim may be burning the candle at both ends.


last and very possibly least, take a look who is a future guest on the doctor anonymous radio show (top right)

and that's it for this edition of surgexperiences. please send submissions for the next edition to this link. also, for anyone wishing to join the growing family of surgexperience hosts, contact jeff, the mastermind behind this humble venture.

please also don't hesitate to link to this surgexperiences from your own blogs.