poem
Op Note XXXVII didn ’t have a choice. One of those stem to stern incisions. All of her spilled right out. The assistant ballasted escaping guts while I suctioned out all the blood. Had to inspect every square inch. The things we saw that day. Whoo boy. At least I ’ve never seen anything like that. Not kidding. Shredded from the inside like a scythe. Couple cans of spilled paint candy caning together in spiraling maroon/purple swirls. Had to patch every hole. Cut out the unsalvageable. Held pressure on all the rest. The next day she was somehow doing better . Extubated. But in a bad way. Basically just a hea...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The Mystery of SufferingThe old lady wasn ’t any better in the morning. She’d need to go to surgery. I gave her the straight dope; rationale, risks and benefits, alternatives etc. She received the news with fender bender equanimity. Folded her glasses in her lap. Smiled pleasantly. I trust what you say, doctor.Resigned to her fate. On her nightstand was a religious pamphlet opened up to a page entitled “The Mystery of Suffering”. Pain isn’t a mystery. We know how that works. C fibers and spinothalamic tracts and things of that nature. Straight biology. Teleologically we also know why: so old Kronk, the...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Poem #45Do you know that feeling when you finish a poem and you think you may have busted out a banger and it ’s cool as hell for a while, you ' re proud of yourself, you finally did it, you may have made something original and halfway decent for once, something someone else will read and perhaps be moved. But after a few weeks you start to waver. You lose confidence. Was it really any good? Sometimes you never read it again. Afraid to find out it really is shit. You missed the mark and there ’s no quick fix. This is what happened to God. He isn’t dead. He made the world as a beautiful poem and then started to ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 20, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Courage is a Dead CurrencyIn this country courage is a dead currencyNo longer a legal tenderAccepted in any reputable storesIts coins and banknotes are counterfeit Try slipping a Canadian quarter In the vending machineAnd nothing happens. No guttural rumbleNo churning of inner gearsNothing falls. The slot remains emptyNo matter how hard you pound the red fa çadeThere ’s nothing we can do to stop itSo many of us have exhausted ourselvesSuffering the years to accumulateNow worthless little mounds of green billsLittle nest eggs to draw onWhen the time came to be brave Some hold on to it, hoping it come...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 19, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
Exclusive Look at HandX Robotic-Assisted Surgical Device from Human Xtensions
Surgical robotics is dominated by various versions of the da Vinci system from Intuitive Surgical, a competent but expensive tool that’s become a standard in modern advanced hospitals. It took Intuitive about 30 years to achieve this status, but there are systems from J&J, Medtronic, CMR Surgical, and others that are chipping away at the company’s dominance. All of these systems operate under the “master-slave” concept, which involves a surgeon sitting behind a console, away from the patient, who manipulates the mechanical arms of the robot via some kind of joystick-like device.
Thanks to ...
Source: Medgadget - February 17, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Exclusive Ob/Gyn Surgery Thoracic Surgery Urology HXtensions surgical robotics Source Type: blogs
poem
Space Between Low gray prison mattress Sky slowly sinking.It gets claustrophobicThe longer you ’re out here. Crawlspace JanuaryReptile wet and gaspy Naked treesCachectic menArms like broken sticksPleading for mercy. Pretty soon I ’m prone On the groundLopping up the lastFew molecules of oxygen I ’ve got left and it’s here, justBefore the terminal blackout,Where I feel it. The truth. The trusted earth rushingUp toward the clouds.It was the earth all alongThronging to fill my lungs With its dirt.2/16/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 16, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The WellWe all have a deep well of loveSupposedly, even meOr so I once allegedI dug it myself Scratched it out of the earthWith my fingernails Choked in the depthsOf its toxic fumesFed on the wormsThat sipped at its sourcePropped the shaft With brick and back Until I tapped Into a vast aquifer A fragile hollow bone Heavy with sweet nectarOnly then did I climb outBeside it I still lieThe sound of its watersDripping back into itselfAs it falls from its wallsOf black stone deep downIn a darkness of my own Is romance enough for me I never lower the bucket anymoreAfraid m...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 14, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Scene IIOne prepares a pot of morning coffee For the other, who just wants a cup of teaLater on, she pulls a steaming Tray of cinnamon crusted muffinsFrom the oven for the personWho ’d give anything for a plateOf fried eggs and baconAs for him, he ’s busy arranging A trip to the mountains for the girlWho never told a soul About her dizzying fear of heights Let ’s clean the kitchen, she saysTo the man who came from dirtDo you know how much I love you?Is parried by a nodding assent From the man who believesLove ought to be hoarded Like bars of gold in Fort KnoxIn order to ever f...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 13, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
WokenIn this dream I ’m startled from sleepBy the sounds of someone crying Curled next to me in a bedI don ’t check to see who it isNot because I ’m callous But because, by the law of dreams,The dreamer already knows So I roll over and fall back to sleep,Into another dream, one where nowI am the one sobbing, maybeBecause there ’s no oneNext to me in bed andIt ’s cold and the blankets are thinAnd the old house creaksAnd there ’s no one in the room to hear,To take pity on me, caress me, And the nightstand is avalanchedBy stacks of unread books.The only thing to do nowIs to cry myself to sleepT...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 4, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Dr. ParkerIt happens a couple times a month. Maybe it ’s me. Maybe I don’t enunciate well enough. Either way, I go into a patient’s room and it’s usually some glum-looking old guy hang-dogging about in there. He sees me and his face lights up. Good morning Dr. Parker! You ’re here early! Or:Helen wake up, this is Dr. Parker, he did your surgery last night! I stopped correcting them years ago. I don ’t mind. I even embrace it. I’ll be Dr. Parker. Hell yes I will. It’s a nice change of pace. Sometimes I get caught up in it. Start acting a little weird. Arching my eyebrows, making my eyes big and crazed....
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 4, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
A List of Famous Hats -after James TateI knew a guy who believed hats evolved to fulfill a function,Purely utilitarian, nothing to do with fashion He further claimed that some hatsWere originally designed to fit the misshapenCranium of some poor soulWho needed to get out of the houseWithout a million wiseguys gawking At his unfortunate deformityThe first pope hat, in fact, was designed for a literal inbred coneheadNapoleon ' s tricorne monstrosity was originally crafted by a nun For a poor orphan girl with skull dominant acromegaly Fascinator hats were godsendsFor self conscious m...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 26, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Scene ILet ’s get two people on the bank of a riverA man and a woman, both early twentiesHe with a wispy mustache, a bowler hat,Maybe dusty denim overalls She in a white cotton dress, her hairBillowing from under a bonnet There ’s no dialogue But you can tell he wants to say somethingTo her. He only has eyes for herBut she is gazing toward the flowing riverThe camera follows her gazeShe could be watching the driftwoodOr the gnarled roots on the opposite bankOr maybe just mesmerized by the motion of waterThe camera pans in, the frigid river so closeTrickling like chills down your spinePretty soon we...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XXXVHad I known this surgery would be so difficult I would have switched call. I would have transferred it out. Punted. I would have taken my daughter skiing and not gotten frustrated with her when she fell. I would have asked her about school and the pressures of eighth grade life and how I understood and was there anything I could do to help. I wouldn ’t have made inane comments about the unseasonably warm weather, about the lovely view from the lift, the reifying properties of cold air. I would try not to let silence reign, lost in my thoughts worrying about the rocky course of the bowel case in th...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 21, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
3 PebblesYou ought to carry three pebblesIn your pocket every day(Not the one where your keys are keptLest they fall out when a door is unlocked)You ought to carry three pebbles To remind you of the threeThings you aren ’t allowed to forgetIt has to be three, no more or less But the things you can ’t forgetAre subject to certain rules One of the pebbles must always standFor the fact that someday you ’ll dieOne has to remind you of somethingOnly you know about someone you love The last one is a wild cardMost people never assign anythingTo the last pebbleIt ’s too hard to chooseIt becomes a ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 18, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XXXIVThe patient was in a perilous state. Critical condition. We had done all that could be done. Maxed out on pressors. Vent settings 100%. It was all up to him now. Everyone seemed to be praying. His mother in the chair to his right, eyes closed, hands clasped, was whispering a prayer. The father prayed with his head bowed. His best friend from childhood was praying. His brother too. The teenage daughter had made her hands into a steeple. A cleaning lady was making the sign of the cross. His wife alternated between weeping and praying, sometimes praying through the weeping. The nurse was m...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 9, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
