Does anyone else hate OT as much as I do?

I think the operating theatre is one of the worst places to be. As a medical student. Who doesn’t scrub in. (Scrubbing in makes a teensy bit of a difference; you’re too busy retracting to see anything but at least you’re doing something). You can’t see, your feet hurt, your back hurts and you can’t hear a thing the consultant is muttering sotto voce to the scrubbed-and-gowned assistants. (Do they really have to speak so softly? Really?)

To make matters worse, I’m not the least bit interested in surgery. The thought of standing on my feet for hours at a time, elbow deep in some 80 year-olds intestines does not appeal to me. Neither does orthopaedics nor head and neck surgery. Nor cardiothoracic. I do not feel a thrill from excising a ruptured appendix, or resecting a tumour. All I am seeing is backs of heads and patients’ toes while the surgical nurse gives me dirty looks for standing too close to her sterile trolley. Calm down and pass the instruments, would you?

Not everyone’s cut out to be a surgeon, anyway. Some people just like to poke you once or twice and write prescriptions. That’s me: professional poker and prescription writer. It’ll look great on my résumé.