Notes on Contributors vii
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
1 “Can’t You Do Anything Right?”: The Shocking Realization That I Was Not Perfect 1
2 Beastly Bellies 5
3 The Friday Night Special: Or Why Do Patients Become Critical Just Before the Weekend? 15
4 Between a Rock and a Hard Place: When to Refer and What Do You Do When Referral Is Not an Option? 27
5 Courage, Mystery, and Awe: The Intangibles of Being a Veterinary Doctor 39
Julie M. Meadows
6 Placed on Earth to Test Us: The Not ]So ]Humble Spay 43
Catherine F. Le Bars
7 “Oops!”: Not a Good Word to Hear During Surgery 47
8 Learning the Hard Way: Student, Resident, Teacher 57
9 “But I Don’t Want to Look Stupid …”: How to Let Others Help You 65
10 “It Didn’t Look Like That on Paper!”: When Textbooks Let Us Down 73
11 “It Will Be Interesting to See Whether That Works”: How to Be a Creative Surgeon 83
12 When the Unthinkable Happens: Mishaps, Mis ]steps, and Medical Errors 95
13 Things Went South – Now What? 103
14 “There’s Got to Be a Morning After”: Things Went Wrong – Now Live With It 111
15 One Leg Too Many: Patients Who Lost Limbs 121
16 Reconstruction Rescue: When the Hole Just Keeps Getting Bigger and Bigger 133
17 “Why Is Sam Straining?”: Iatrogenic Strictures and Stray Oddities 143
18 “An Alien in My Waiting Room”: Everyday Occurences of the Unexpected and Unbelievable 155
19 Rewind: What Would I Do Differently If I Had the Chance? 167
Index 171