"... and the world outside the operating theatre simply disappears. You are never bored. You cannot afford to make any mistakes. And making a mistake with your hands – your instruments slipping, for instance, or your hands shaking – is incredibly rare.... Working on the doll’s house in my workshop is a very different experience. My mind wanders and I often struggle against boredom, especially if the work is very repetitive, such as making multiple bannisters for a miniature staircase. I often get things wrong and have to saw up a new piece of wood and, cursing myself furiously, start all over again – not a luxury you have when operating."
Writes Henry Marsh in "After a long career in brain surgery, I’m trying my hand at making doll’s houses/To my surprise I don’t miss neurosurgery now I’ve retired, but still find joy in making things for my grandchildren" (The Guardian).
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In my first big job I knew a man, I ended up commuting with to work in Pearl River (after they closed the Jersey City office) who enthusiastically spoke of making architectural models. You could tell the experience was one of the best times of his life. He said he could do just about anything with matchsticks, glue, sandpaper and paint. He became an engineer on the GI Bill, and his drawings were Michael Angelos. He also had been a surgical assistant in Vietnam. His wife was a registered nurse at Palisades General, which later became Palisades Medical Center. He's probably retired by now. I lost track after getting laid off in 2009.
Many medicoes construct tools of their trade. Their skillsets require their answers.
This sounds familiar...
Neurosurgeon goes to therapy
The other Dr Glaucomflecken videoes are pretty good too.
The calm skills of a surgeon amaze me.
As do the talents of orchestral musicians, etc. Have you ever been to a performance where someone onstage coughed or sneezed, or had to grab a hankie, stat!
Me neither. Flow?
Ways I know my world is very different from yours...I read the headline, and this is what I thought of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ieIQFNjWg
(Matt Best is a former Army Ranger. Special operations troops are often referred to as 'operators.)
I have many anecdotes about surgery. One is that people talk during surgery, not just about what is going on. Then there will be a crucial part of the procedure and all conversation stops. When that stage of the operation is past, the conversation resumes as if there had been no pause. Neurosurgery is the same.
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