Originally posted by Tweetie_bird
ok, so does everybody have the book? I have already started reading and I find it amazing. How do we start discussing it? any issues that you think came up in the first 20 pages or so that you would like to address? I don't know how to start a discussion on this stuff. So give me some feedback if you can.
what kind of thing did you want to discuss Tweetie?
1. The writing, literary techniques, style? I suggest we stay off this one as I doubt many people are interested
and it's not high art, it's just interesting...
The thing I got out of his surgery rotation:
A) People are weird. He didn't listen to "Jill" the attendings presentation of the tumor case yet on leaving he feels entitled to grouse that *he* didn't get to say anything and wants to grab the attending and say "He's my patient too!". Ummm, no he's not....he's Jill's patient...you are there to learn, while a 3rd year shares responsibility in patient care I'ma little leery of the idea that on day 1 of 3rd year surgery rotation the 3rd year has a whole lot to contribute.....(oh go ahead and flame me
....)
B) He comments the attending shot "A glance that said, ?another grouchy old lady...just what we need right now." Hmmm, I think we all make interpretations of others gestures but isn't this taking mind reading, and of a particularly negative slant, a little too far?
C) "On we went, seeing maybe 8 or 10 more patients, walking into their darkened rooms, throwing on all the lights, and waking up each and every one of them....." I must admit, having been a patient, I never did understand this penchant of doctors to arrive at 5am and wake me up, or why meal times were so weird. I guess it's not a holiday inn, but really, is throwing off all my biorhythms the best way to get me better?
D) " I boldly strode into room 6,
trying look like I knew what I was doing. In fact, and not for the first time that morning, I had absolutely no idea.
?Hey! Stop right there!? a nurse exclaimed. She turned toward me, a short, stocky woman in her forties or fifties, her features obscured by a surgical
mask and cap. Obscured, except for her eyes, which glared at me like a rattlesnake about to strike venom into my carotids. ?Where?s your mask?? she asked angrily.
?And your cap? We?re trying to keep it sterile in here. Surgery hasn?t even started yet, and you?re contaminating everything!? I looked around, bewildered, amazed
that I had already screwed up."
Well, I wasn't amazed he had already screwed up. What did he expect to happen, marching round a hospital pretending to know what he was doing? If you don't know - ask. I guess I can see the dilemma of not always wanting to be asking, and not wanting to seem dumb, but really most of this first chapter seems to be him thinking he should have some major role when he doesn't even know whats going on. I hope the first two years of medical school don't teach me to behave in this way.
Overall I think it's fascinating to read, but I haven't felt much kinship with the narrator so far. Mainly due to a disconnect between my personality and his as ai perceive it in the story telling. I think however the balance between wanting to appear like you know what your doing and just screwing it up trying to do so is well portrayed. I'm not sure that was exactly the writers intention though....
