Post call rambling

Nothing is as satisfying as seeing the two bits of bone clicking into place as you manipulate a limb.

Seriously.

My partner in Ortho and my boss went off for a symposium in KB today and the boss had posted a case of fracture femur on the elective list. Now, I had done plating of a femur before but always with my partner and in all the previous times, he had done the reduction.

One never realises how difficult it is to reduce a fracture site until one does it him/herself. My partner makes it look so easy. I am starting to feel the dull ache in my biceps and triceps after pulling on the two parts of the broken bone. Thank goodness I had my two trusty MAs who, unlike me, were not postcall and were in a better shape to do all the traction and countering.

However, nothing is as irritating as having your patient sent back to ward because a caesarian section trumps everything else in OT land, and then having to wait 30 minutes before that patient finally arrives and having to listen to her scream for 10 mins because she wanted to pee in a toilet instead of into a bag.

And also, having to wait 2 hours for an appendectomy to finish because your makcik had been fasting since 4 am and it was already 6 pm and you just didn't have the heart to cancel her case. So, there I was suturing a piece of skin graft on a diabetic foot at 7pm on a postcall day.

You just have to love your work, I say.