Slow and steady wins the race

Life Lessons for the week of March 8, 2010:

• If you are 2 hours into the OR with 90% of your view of the abdomen obscured by a cystadenofibroma the size of a honeydew melon and your attending asks you to identify a piece of anatomy (which he describes as a "nubbin")- the answer is "the appendix." It will be the correct answer at least half of the time.
  

• If you turn your back for more than 30 seconds to play a quick zinger on Words with Friends, your resident(s) will disappear, leaving you standing there like a sad, lost puppy. And they probably won't return your texts because the cell phone reception in the hospital is similar to that of a steel tunnel. The solution? Follow them everywhere, even to the bathroom.

• Girl crushes on female residents is a natural, normal part of life. Don't stifle it, just let it happen.

Losing an hour tonight; buying Clinique's entire stock of under eye concealer tomorrow. Two weeks of OB/GYN left and counting.