One day in Vet school I was on an anesthesiology rotation. The patient that I was scheduled to run anesthesia on was an Oncology patient. This poor dog had a tumor about the size of a volleyball hanging off of the side of his chest, that was to be removed.
Once I had the patient into the surgical suite, I met up with a resident and two senior vet students who would be scrubbing in on this surgery. We were only missing one member of the surgical team, the Doctor in charge. As we waited the resident proceeded to expound to all of us how lucky we were, because the Doctor who would be performing the surgery was a legend, a true pioneer in the field of Oncology. She then explained how in her two years of residency so far, that this was the first time that she was privileged to watch this legendary Doctor operate. How lucky for us lowly senior Vet students to be able to witness this man at work.
I'll never forget the work of this legendary Doctor either. He walked into the room gowned and prepared to operate. He picked up the scalpel, made one quick cut that took the entire tumor off in one slick motion. Then with what now appeared to be the scene of a slasher movie, blood on the ceiling, blood on the walls, blood covering everyone in the room, and blood continuing to pour from the incision at an incredible rate, this legendary Doctor took his gloves off, threw them in the trash and as he walked out the door said "I'm done, close it up for me."
It's a good thing that the Resident who had been singing the praises of this legendary Doctor had her surgical mask tied on securely, I believe it kept her jaw from bouncing off the floor as the great Doctor walked out of the room. I couldn't help but laugh.
Well fast forward several years. I'm now the Doctor, and I was at a Dairy where the herdsman asked me to look at the leg of a heifer with a large growth off the inside of it's hock. He asked me "Is there anything you can do for that Doc?" Well after palpating it with my hands I determined that I thought we could successfully remove this tumor surgically.
So after carefully sedating the cow, laying her down for surgery, and preparing the surgical site. I was prepared to cut. Just before I made my first incision visions of the dog from the slasher movie flashed through my head, and I wondered out lout "What have I gotten myself into?" Well the tumor came off easily enough, but just like the dog so many years before, blood was spraying everywhere. Then the real work of stopping the bleeding and closing the incision began.
That's when I realized that I didn't pay very good attention in school. I still live in close proximity to a Vet school, and quite often have eager young Vet students riding with me. Had I been smart, I would have waited to do this surgery on a day when I had a couple of Vet students with me. That way, I could have removed the tumor, peeled off my gloves and said "Close it up for me, won't you?"
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