the underwear drawer

from the banal to the sublime back to the banal

When the OR schedule for today was released last Friday afternoon, I checked what cases was doing, and noted that my day was going to range from the banal to the sublime. I had two cases in my room, the first a toe amputation ("toe amp," the banal) and the second, an open repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm ("open triple A," the sublime), the latter of which is a large major vascular case which I have never actually done before. I've done a good number of endovascular triple A repairs, which seems to be more in vogue these days, but an open triple A would be a much more involved case. I would get to put in a thoracic epidural. There would be a central line, drips. There would be displacement of the mesentary, clamping of the aorta. It would be THE BIG TIME.

I was thinking about this open triple A all day yesterday. I did my reading. I ran through the plan in my head. I plotted in my head what equipment I would need, what special meds I would need to set up, what drips I wanted to have hanging. I woke up extra early this morning to give myself extra time to get ready.

So of course the case was cancelled.

Well, the amputated toe looked pretty gangrenous, if that makes up for anything.