Did my last surgical procedure today. A small I&C for a chalazion. A friend of mine settled in the UK has asked me to help his cousin, and she had taken a 2 hour journey to see me rather than the dozens of ophthalmologists in her city and in the towns she drove through. I couldn’t not operate on her when she trusts me like this. Well, trusts her cousin’s opinion of me, but still.
It struck me how I would miss the small things. I’ve been focused on the big picture with the job change. Less driving, more days off, stuff like that. Today I thought how I would never scrub for surgery again and I remembered the professor who taught me how to scrub. I thought of how I wouldn’t be giving local blocks and I remembered the first peribulbar block I gave. Putting the mask on, the cold titanium instruments in my hand, the eye exposed under green surgical drapes, gauging the depth of the incision by the feel of how the blade sliced through tissue, innumerable little tricks I learned from seniors or from experience, the smell of the powdered rubber gloves, that itch that grew insistent the moment you got into your scrubs…..it is a world that I had grown so accustomed to. C’est la vie!
hbhatnagar
Not-so-random thoughts
My last case
hbhatnagar 
Good luck on your new adventure!
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Posted by Tessa | 15/05/2015, 8:20 AMThank you!
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 15/05/2015, 8:24 AMBest of luck on your new adventure!
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Posted by jackijons | 14/05/2015, 2:28 PMThank you!
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 14/05/2015, 4:07 PMtrue..reminds me when I quit professional life to go into research…a very small time compared to you though 🙂
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Posted by Saya | 14/05/2015, 11:45 AMWhat kind of research do you do now, if you don’t mind me asking?
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 14/05/2015, 12:16 PMrelated to environment and climate change
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Posted by Saya | 14/05/2015, 12:17 PMSounds exciting and is very, very controversial these days!
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 14/05/2015, 12:18 PMtrue..though climate change is very much real..the fast countries understand..the better it will be..
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Posted by Saya | 14/05/2015, 12:20 PMNot going to happen though… I always sound too pessimistic, isn’t it?
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 14/05/2015, 12:22 PMI fear that too..or atleast it may happen but too late…you do sound pessimistic, but in this matter..that is the case..
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Posted by Saya | 14/05/2015, 12:27 PMWell it’s hard to be positive about this when a US Senator can bring a snowball to the Senate and present it as proof that there’s no global warming.
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 14/05/2015, 12:35 PMWhy is this your last surgical procedure?
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Posted by ANooP | 14/05/2015, 11:18 AMI’m quitting practice. Joining a Pharma IT firm on Monday.
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 14/05/2015, 11:24 AMOh, that’s sad 😦
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Posted by ANooP | 14/05/2015, 2:33 PMHappens. 🙂
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 14/05/2015, 4:07 PM