Thursday, May 27, 2010

World's Best Cup of Coffee

I had the best day ever yesterday.  All because of the world's best cup of  coffee.


It started in the OR of my first case, with Dr. Lovely (scary attending who I am simulataneously insanely admirous and terrified of, but who I'm trying to get a letter of recommendation from).   The resident who was supposed to be there got caught up doing something else; so I was first assistant.  For some reason, he let me do A TON.  Normally, he would manage to do both my and his jobs without letting me so much as touch the skin.  But I was suturing and cutting, and he was letting me try everything at least once before he took it over to do it correctly.  What was going on....

After the case, he sat down and went over the case with me.  Then he went over 2 of his other patients with me  Then he took me to see a new consult.  Then he offered to buy me a cup of  coffee.  The world's best cup of coffee.  At this point, I was starting to believe that he was starting to actually take me seriously as a future surgeon.  He was actually investing time and energy in me. The coffee was delicious. What was going on...

I had to leave this parallel universe for a meeting with the chairman of the department of surgery.  This wasn't just A metting though; this was THE meeting. In his words, THE meeting was to "discuss how competitive of a surgery applicant you think you are; and how competitive you really are".  I was feeling great walking into the meeting, with my magically affirming-and-inspiring cup of coffee in hand.  We went talked about everything from my board scores and research to my travel experiences.  Finally, I manned up and handed him my very ambitious list of surgery residency programs that I wanted to apply to. 
     He looked at the list. 
           I looked at my cup of coffee. 
     He looked at me. 
           I started thinking about law school. 
     He said, "Looks perfect". 
I almost spilled the world's best cup of coffee all over his desk- I was so exctied.  This guy knows his shit- and he just told me that it's appropriate for me to be applying at the top schools in the country.  Seriously-  what's in this coffee?!

After that, I headed back to Dr. Lovely's OR.  Where once again, he proceeded to let me do EVERYTHING.  I don't know what was in that cup of coffee; but it was magical.

And now for something silly from XKCD (because every blog post should be a little silly):





4 comments:

  1. What a great day for you! I hate to ruin the magic of the coffee but you need to know that the magic is in you - no coffee needed!

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  2. Excellent and well deserved! From an incredibly proud mom

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  3. Diet Coke works the same way.
    I am not surprised at all.

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  4. Laura, that is fantastically awesome. I know how difficult surgeons are to impress, and it's next to impossible to break into the circle unless you've demonstrate promise. Obviously you've proven yourself in the OR, or otherwise you wouldn't be in this position. Congrats and best of luck!

    Wayne (soon to be pediatrics resident)

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