I work mostly in Ortho trauma. Something I said last week turned into fodder for entertainment by my group of docs. We were reaming for an ICBG and I had never used a reamer before. The surgeon patiently showed me how to change out the heads of the reamers. Not so easy. He likes to do his cases quickly and appreciates efficiency. He told me to have one reamer up on the mayo and have another prepared so that he can ream while I am saving the reamings for the graft.
I was starting to get the hang of it, but this one reamer head WOULD NOT COME OFF! He was starting to get impatient with me. I said, "I'm sorry Dr. X, but I CANNOT GET THIS HEAD OFF!" One of the techs started to snicker while I was sweating bullets. Dr. X says in an exasperated voice, "Canes, just grab it real hard and jerk it off! It's not that difficult!" Well, the entire room fell into fits of laughter.
Another day last month I was coming in to relieve a scrub tech for lunch. Sometimes they like to wait until all of the implants are in before being relieved. We were putting in plates and screws for a humeral ORIF and the tech says to me, "I don't want to leave until we are done screwing. Come back in 5." Oh my goodness. Again, everyone laughed like little kids!
I think the funniest thing that I have heard was our surgeon announcing after a difficult hardware removal, "We are one screw away from calling this a victory!"
What are some of the things that you have said or heard during a case that turned out to be funny?
