I never thought I'd say this...

...but the cafeteria food is fantastic! I've been doing the whole bring-you-sandwich-to-work thing, but was actually given cash on our last social gathering by the IFMSA organizing girl (the one who's boyfriend's name is Anus) since we didn't get meal tickets, or some such thing. I didn't ask too many questions. Anyhow, I've been having a bit of difficulty finding good (read: both vegetarian and not ridiculously expensive) food, but apparently it's been hiding in the cafeteria this whole time. Not only that, but the food here is actually nutritious; they don't seem to have the standard burger/pizza/greaseball food that is unfortunately typical in most hospitals.



So I was in surgery today, talking to the Japanese dude who's started working here while we were both observing a procedure. The patient (3 years old) was having a modified Glenn procedure [most might want to skip to the end of this parenthetical, but for those interested, this patient needed to have his superior vena cava connected to the pulmonary artery thus bypassing the right side of the heart; normally this is done because the right heart isn't working, but in this case, the right heart was actually connected to the aorta in a previous surgery because the left heart wasn't working properly].

Anyhow, the Japanese dude was explaining a bit about the procedure, then we started talking about thoracic surgery in general, at which point the surgeon looks at us and says 'you can not talk while I am operating'. This was a bit unusual, as surgeons here mostly encourage talking, especially asking questions and what not. I almost responded with 'but what you're doing is so boooooooooooring. You want me to not talk too?'. Clearly, I am not cut out (pun intended) to be a thoracic surgeon, where the operations are several hours long; I just don't have the attention span for it. Although doing an operation would undoubtedly be more exciting, watching someone delicately disect away interstitial tissue is not.

Later on, Dr. Surgeon warms up a bit, and answers some questions I was asking Japanese dude (waited until there was a 'break' in the operation to ask). I asked whether or not a heart transplant would be a better alternative to the procedure, to which he replies: 'actually, the best treatment would be an abortion at 20 weeks'. Dead silence. Then some awkward silence. 'I'm actually quite serious' he goes on 'we're actually starting to screen for this defect now'. Wasn't really sure how to take this. I mean this guy was painstakingly operating on this poor kid for at least the second time in a procedure that takes the better part of a day. Clearly, he's making an effort, and trying to do what's best for the patient. At the end of the day, though, he sees it all as being futile, but continues to do it anyway. I guess I'll just file that one away under 'things that make you go hmmm'.