So one of the fun things of this rural rotation is that I get to know a lot of the docs in the hospital, just by virtue of its small size (40 beds). I've been scrubbing a couple cases with "the" general surgeon on staff who's a real character. Pushing 70 years old, 5 ft and change, originally from Brooklyn. Which means he's a little ADD, a little senile, lacks any sort of social filter, and is a helluva surgeon. Kinda like Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas, except Jewish, and minus the mean streak.Example of an exchange we had:
"So its my 40th wedding anniversary this weekend"
"Congratulations! That's quite the accomplishment! Any big plans?"
"Well, it's actually our 39th. But I'm telling the wife its the 40th so I can take her to Switzerland at the end of the month. That way we get to do it twice. The broad doesn't have a fuckin' clue how long its been, but god do I love 'er."
"Haha, that's brilliant."
Anyways, earlier this week I scrubbed on a "soft tissue mass excision", which was basically excising an abscess. The thing had been I&D'd a couple times and always recurred, and since it sat squarely in the patient's perineum (3 cm or so lateral to the anal triangle, almost right over his ischial tuberosity... yeowch), it was a painful sucker.
So we're about to start the case and Dr. DeVito turns to me and says "I was gonna let you cut, but I'm gonna try to get this sucker out without piercing the abscess. Y'know, keep the pus out of the wound and we might be able to close him up and save him a lot of trouble." We get the site draped, eyeball/palpate the abscess, and draw a nice clear margin on the skin. I'm ready with suction in hand, Dr. DeVito makes the first cut, and... almost immediately pus pours out of the incision all over the surgical site, sprung free from a pocket of the abscess that was tracking laterally under the skin.
"Well, shit. Might as well let you take over."
He turns, hands me the 10 blade, and grins.
