Tag Archives: Surgery

This Climb Does Not End

Posted on March 31, 2013 by stephenarcher

If I had a Sun­day morn­ing off while I was a surgery res­i­dent, it felt like Christ­mas and my birth­day every time. They did not come often. I worked over 100 hours/week and was on call either every third or every … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Last House

Posted on February 2, 2013 by stephenarcher

I took all the pic­tures in Guatemala with a small Leica dig­i­tal cam­era at my waist. I assumed the cam­era saw about what I was see­ing and fired hun­dreds of frames. Any street phở­tog­ra­pher uses this tech­nique. Hav­ing a small … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Mistakes

Posted on January 29, 2013 by stephenarcher

We had been in Guatemala a few days, walked the mar­ket a few times, set up the OR’s and been in the clin­ics; we were work­ing hard by this time. The OR was full of cases. Three oper­at­ing tables – they are … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Doing Nothing To Get Somewhere

Posted on December 11, 2012 by stephenarcher

In an oper­a­tion, some­times, there are moments when I can’t turn back and I really can’t go for­ward. I have to wait and see. Doing more can be worse. Today, I used a sur­gi­cal sta­pler to divide the blood sup­ply … Con­tinue read­ing →

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By and Bye

Posted on August 19, 2012 by stephenarcher

A man was put in prison in 2000 some­thing, I don’t know why, didn’t ask. He was trans­ferred to my sur­gi­cal ser­vice. It goes like this: I get a page say­ing to call the trans­fer cen­ter at the hos­pi­tal. It’s … Con­tinue read­ing →

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No Beginning and No Ending

Posted on April 22, 2012 by stephenarcher

I am going to try to relate this to you in a way that does not sound con­trived. It’s impos­si­ble. It is con­trived. Con­trived means that it was obvi­ously planned. This, what I am telling you about, was, and yet … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Landscape Photographer

Posted on April 18, 2012 by stephenarcher

Tonight I took an old woman back to the oper­at­ing room because she had a bowel obstruc­tion. Two things here: One: we are built like donuts and our donut hole does not tol­er­ate a twist. Two: she had been to … Con­tinue read­ing →

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1 2 3 4

Posted on March 9, 2012 by stephenarcher

Dur­ing an oper­a­tion, the pulse is counted on a the beep­ing machine in the back­ground. 1 2 3 4. Nor­mal is 60 – 80. A mil­lion things can change the pulse. My heart quick­ens when she walks by, for instance. Dur­ing an oper­a­tion, … Con­tinue read­ing →

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V.

Posted on February 29, 2012 by stephenarcher

I have on my desk a photo of the daugh­ters (7, 12) of the 29 year old woman who I ordered the fatal dose of mor­phine for when the pain of her colon can­cer rode up on her like the wild … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Burnout

Posted on January 19, 2012 by stephenarcher

My patient had lit­er­ally burned a hole in his tiny, new stom­ach with a com­bi­na­tion of cig­a­rettes and alco­hol. I don’t have a moral posi­tion on this except that life is prob­a­bly worth pre­serv­ing until one can make an informed … Con­tinue read­ing →

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