When I finally went through the circle of My colon’s life and moved onto the JPouch I felt very blessed to have stumbled onto one of the early procedure pioneers. He had done by his words 1000’s. He was the head of teaching and had all the alphabet soup to go with it. Member of this, dean of that, a real Dudley do Right of the process.
But he was old school. He had a hydraulic table with a kneeling pad that once you were on he lifted and tilted you so there was no way to get off and changing your mind wasn’t in the picture. He always had an entierage wherever he was. Students, residents and Fellowshipers. Great surgeon, horrible bedside manner.
I went in for what was to be my 6th and final surgical follow up after my reversal. So he tells me to assume the position with my pants down, the hydraulics kicked in and soon I was just under eye level for him and the crowd. You can’t see anything behind you on that table because of the angle of entry. Gravity is not your friend up there. As always I am pretty anxious awaiting that big moment that takes your breath away. In an attempt to calm myself I usually start cracking jokes. So…doc I says, is this a chosen profession or were you just a C student?
The sucking sound was audible having just made fun of little g in the room. There was a pause and he says’ you know in 35 years, no one has ever made fun of what I do for a living…especially not right before I did it. The next sound I heard was his snapping glove. That’s when it dawned on me I might have gone too far.
That’s actually a true story and not a joke but as we all know ya have to laugh or it’ll kill ya. I had a great relationship with him and only allowed him to examine me for about 5 years when quit going in and began to believe it was going to work.