CABG

CABG stands for "coronary artery bypass graft." I watched a patient's heart beating during a bypass surgery today. It was pretty cool, but not as awe-inspiring as I thought it might be. Am I too jaded, or too educated now to be stricken with awe? The weird thing was that the most memorable part of that surgery was when I told the surgeon the three standard expressions of Japanese surprise were: "Eeeeh?" "Waaaa!" and "Oooooh!" The whole room burst into laughter while the dude's heart was hanging out in the open. And THAT, to me, was the most remarkable part - that they were all so at ease even while elbow-deep in some guy's chest cavity that they could have a belly laugh during bypass surgery.

Ah, I so miss being at ease and good at what I do. People used to think this about ME as I stabilized and packaged multiple gunshot wounds, did CPR on heart attacks, and dragged myself half-asleep to put out car fires. Now I get excited about drawing blood. "Someday" can't come soon enough.