Ted Mosby's wife gave wonderful advice to Robin. She said she took three deep breaths when she was overwhelmed. She said that helped her resolve all such situations. For those of you who don't know Ted Mosby - he is the central character in the famous American TV serial 'How I Met Your Mother'. I decided to try that out. Today I had plenty of scope for trying that out. This is how my day went.
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Situation
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Primary Action
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Action After
Primary Action
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Gynecology OT first operation held up because operating
surgeon did not turn up on time
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Three deep breaths
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Decided to stand in for the operating surgeon, to perform
a vaginal hysterectomy
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Operating surgeon arrived
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Three deep breaths
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Decided to allow operating surgeon to operate instead of
me.
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Operating surgeon likely to open bladder
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Three hurried deep breaths
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Helped find correct plane and corrected direction of
scissors.
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Operating surgeon exposed prerectal fat
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Three deep breaths
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Found posterior peritoneal pouch for the operating surgeon
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Operating surgeon likely to clamp ureter
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Three deep breaths
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Corrected direction of clamp.
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Loose ligature
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Three deep breaths
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Got a figure of eight ligature placed.
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Operating surgeon broke continuous stitch near the end
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Three deep breaths
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Took over and prevented the entire suture line opening up.
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Placed right foot in dustbin at foot end of OT table while
getting up after previous step
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Three deep breaths
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Washed foot and OT slipper and disinfected with alcohol
based antiseptic.
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Cystic ovarian tumor spilled its contents on my left foot
while assisting the next operation
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Three deep breaths
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Washed out, changed, washed left foot and OT slipper,
disinfected with alcohol based antiseptic, washed up and resumed assisting.
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Second assistant likely to spray aspirated peritoneal
fluid on operating surgeon
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Three deep breaths
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Resolved without any intervention on my part.
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Boss asked for urgent information on equipment in the
department, while I was still assisting.
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Three deep breaths
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Got another professor to stand in for me.
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An alcoholic boarded my bus, sat next to me, poked me in
the ribs and asked what the time was.
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Three deep breaths
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Said I had no watch on my wrist and turned nose towards
window to inhale fresh air rather than his alcohol laden breath.
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Sudoku in Times seemed impossible, though it was categorized
as ‘easy’
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Three deep breaths
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Went to sleep, though it was just 6:30 P.M.
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Booted computer for work in the evening: dead.
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Three deep breaths
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Checked current in wall socket, opened box, reattached
power cable, checked RAM and other connections, rechecked mother board
connections, finally replaced mains power cord.
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It was 42 deep breaths, not three. I am not sure if the deep breaths worked or my remedial actions worked primarily. One thing is sure - my body tissues got much more oxygen that they usually do.
