Category: TMSC
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Leave It There
“I thought I could beat the ICU, you know?” My resident looked into the distance abstractly as he spoke, talking more to himself than to me. “Sometimes you think you won’t let it get you down, but you can’t. It always wins.” I wondered what he meant by winning. Did he mean getting to leave…
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Preparing to Die
She was like so many other patients I had seen: thin, pale, elderly, and short of breath. The oxygen mask and its large ballooning bag seemed unnatural and almost comically oversized on her face, obscuring everything but her eyes and the dusky, blood-matted hair plastered to her forehead. She squeezed the bag, hungrily trying to…
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Abba
She wouldn’t stop crying, so I picked her up before realizing that the diaper was wet. The sun was setting and the room was dim and quiet, disturbed only by the peripheral noises of the hospital hallway and the sound of her distress. I gingerly held her up, setting her flat on the bed, and…
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A Reflection on the Anatomy Lab
Originally delivered March 1, 2007 at the Anatomy Lab Memorial Service. In preparing for this reflection, there were many sensations that came to mind: the dryness of dread in my mouth on that first day of lab, the sharp snap of latex gloves, the lingering smell of disinfectant on my hands, the gritty knot in…