First Day?

Technically, i believe that friday was my first day as an attending. I've had very bad luck on other first days of sorts. I had a patient die on my first day of residenc. And there have been many almosts on other various first days. No one one died. Yay. One guy did "accidentally" blow off part of his face with a shotgun. very unusual for this town. very lucky for him if it was truely an accident despite the fact he lost an eye. Hope people have a safe holiday.

Death

I'm watching a documentary filmed at my hospital a few months ago. I've written about it a few times in the past. I've critizized it for being a bit melodramatic and ignoring anesthesiology. That's all okay. Today the showed someone who almost got a liver transplant twice and had it unable to be done for various reasons. Then they showed him dying after having life support withdrawn at somepoint after that. I think they did a great job actually showing that not everything turns out well in the hospital. Not the usual perfect outcome that's usually portrayed. Even though I've seen death in the hospital before it still hits you. Rest in peace.

Television

I just saw the side of my head on TV.

Cool eh? I'm famous!

Well not really. The Discovery Channel was at my hospital a few months ago filming stories about residents. I help in part of a heart transplant, so you can see the side of my head over the surgical drapes. Not that I want to be on TV, but they seem to gloss over the anesthesia portion of these cases a lot. Oh well. Surgery makes better television.

Discovery Health

I'm watching Discovery Health Channel. I try not to watch medical problems when I'm at home since it's all I see at work. But the hospital I work at is featured. I remember the camera crews walking around a few months ago and it's interesting to see how things are portrayed. Seems like most of the things focused on are surgical procedures. I guess that makes good TV. Being an anesthesiologist I see that they gloss over much of what we do. Oh well. It's also all very melodramatic too. Not that the situations aren't critical, but things are so black and white on TV. I remember speaking to one of the camera women. She said to me, that it's a few hundred hours of footage for every hour of television. I guess you can tell any story when you can edit so much out.

First Days

Tomorrow I'm staffing my first case as a cardiac anesthesia attending. That means I call the shots... and "the buck stops here". I'm worried.. not because I don't think I can do the job, but more because I've had lots of bad first days. I'll tell you about it sometime. Not tonight.