Locked out

I was on call yesterday and there was a fire drill going on so the fire alarms were going off... i was headed to the ORs to wake up a patient with one of the residents and I swiped my ID at the OR doors... Nothing... no click, just blinking lights on the pad. I swiped my ID again. Same. So I pulled on the door. still locked no way to open it. Luckily someone was exiting the locker room and I got in there and cut into the ORs. This happened on one other occasion with a different door soon after the opening of our new addition, which I chalked up to being in a new building. I don't know if this is the case with any other doors, but I'm guessing it is.

This is a serious problem. Luckily I was going to a routine wake-up with a good resident and I wasn't really needed. But we need to get into the ORs, or really anywhere in the hospital where we are needed regardless of whether a fire drill is happening or not, or a real fire, or if the building is falling down. This goes the same for the residents who may be running to a code or emergent airway.

Excuse me while I spend the next half hour composing a coherent email to the higher-ups

Fat

Wow.

One of my rare days now where I'm not doing cardiac or thoracic cases.

The patient had a Body Mass Index (BMI= weight in kg/ [height in meters]squared) of 78! Overweight is above 25, obese above 30. It's a little conservative in my opinion, but this is ridiculous. He was 5 foot 6 or so, and above 220kg. (~500 lbs) fortunately he was here for gastric bypass surgery.

When they're this big, you worry if you're able to get IV access, establish the airway, and whether the surgeons will have difficulty with the procedure.

Anyway, after we put the patient to asleep and intubated him the attending surgeon asked:

"How did you know that would be easy?"

My reply, "I didn't."

I moved along into how we examine the patient and the markers we look for that predict difficulty (or lack thereof)

Luckily no problems.

I did have salad for lunch... I need to work on my own BMI.

Sad

I pulled out my bike from the garage yesterday to ride it to the gas station to get some air for the tires... It's about two miles I guess. Anyway, I was recounting this to my girlfriend who seemed glad I was getting some exercise.

"Well it took you about 30 minutes... that's not too bad."

"Minus stopping for air..."

"You were that winded?"

"... Air... for the tires."

I must be more out of shape than I thought.

Poop

Luckily my friend's dad is feeling a bit better... kicked out of the hospital. No more obsession with flatus. Now family is obsessed with poops.

Abdominal surgery

My friend's father had emergency bowel surgery this past weekend, so I've received many surgical type questions which I'm marginally qualified to answer. In any case I'm finding it amusing with how my attention is being taken to his gastrointestinal tract, specifically the ability to pass gas. Hope he's feeling better soon.