...Surgical Secrets

When people think about surgeries, people often consider many things. Imagine a surgical scene...I am guessing you are imagining a big cold room, white walls, blue linens, steel instruments, surgical caps covering the surgeon's hair, masks, gloves... And if you think hard enough, you may think of the anesthesiologist, a ventilator, big bright lights, ultrasound machine, xray machine, computers...But one thought that never crosses anyone's mind is how it will smell. But think about it...we use heat to cauterize arteries, heat to burn through fat, heat to transect things...naturally, it's going to smell like frying meat. But it's the most horrible frying smell, it almost makes me sick, like a sweet and smoky burning smell, it's horrible. And fat is the worst. It's strange that fat would smell so bad, since melted butter is one of my most favorite smells in the world, and nothing makes me drool more than a nice Ribeye Steak cooking on the BBQ. It's evolution, we're meant to crave high-calorie foods to store energy for times when food is scarce. But the smell in the OR is nauseating, it's horrible...In a way, the OR smells like a sketchy BBQ, like a really shady street meat vendor. Seriously. Today we used micro-wave ablation to transect a liver...we microwaved a human liver. What a smell. It was almost aromatic, but still it was a very bizarre smell. After not eating all day (I was stuck in the OR until 4), I can't say that I have any appetite tonight. And I can honestly say I will think twice before I again try any "Liver and Onions"! If I make it through the rest of my surgical clerkship without becoming a vegetarian, I'll be a little surprised. Yuck!