Funny or Pathetic? Yes, I'll have both.

Sometimes you can look at an event in one of two ways: funny, or, pathetic. The combination can prove to be entertaining. With the help of some figures, I hope to illustrate my point by recounting my 2nd week of MS3 on General Surgery.

Figure 1: Tuesday, 3pm

Figure 1 demonstrates the effects of the stomach flu (i.e. bum on the toilet and bucket at hand.) I promptly left the hospital.

Figure 2: Tuesday, 4 p.m.

Figure 3 is not Wednesday but Thursday. Simple logical extrapolation should explain Wednesday quite well.

Figure 3 is me, crying silently and holding traction (keeping a wound open for the surgeons) while the tears fogged up my mask and the salty snot ran into my mouth. I had had no food but simple starches since Monday and I was physically spent from illness but being asked to stand for four hours and hold up instruments with no place to rest my arms. I'm pretty sure people have used standing for long periods as a means of torture.

Figure 4: A tragedy! And yes, I spilled coffee all over my white coat.

Figure 5: Coat washed in sink, waiting outside for it to dry. It only took 30 minutes for a sopping wet coat to be bone-dry. I, on the other hand...

But the best part, my favorite part, was our first feedback session.

Behold, Figure 6:

And yes, that is verbatim!

Dear friends, I am so glad this week is over.