eliot ablaze, and a needle

crap! something terrifying just happened! i was about to write a little bit and i have a candle burning here on my desk. eliot jumped up here (to be with me) such that his chest was immediately above the flame. his chest fur ignited!

it was only for a second; eliot jumped down and the fire was extinguished. gosh but what a stink of singed fur. foul. i went and caught him; he hissed at me when i grabbed him but then he let me hold him and inspect the affected area.

it's probably a good thing the boy has so dang much fur. i don't think his skin was burned at all. it's difficult to tell for certain, but he seems okay. what a freaky occurence, though.

it still kind of stinks in here. poor eliot. i won't soon forget the look of surprise and confusion on his face when he lit up. hee. terrible; i'm sorry.

okay. let's calm down a moment. take a deep knee bend.

prior to the fire, i was getting ready to report on wee perk of my job: today i was transcribing a procedure note this afternoon for a transforaminal epidural injection. it was a brief note: the patient was brought to the operating room and placed on the table. the area of his back to be injected was cleansed and anesthetized. the needle was inserted. stuff was injected. the needle was repositioned and more stuff was injected.

the doctor then said the two sentences that bring almost all surgical reports to a close: "the patient tolerated the procedure well. he was brought to the recovery room in stable condition."

then i could hear the doctor sit back in his chair, away from the phone into which he was dictating, and speak to the patient; distantly, he said, "is there any change in your pain with this anesthesia?" gruffly, and also distantly, i could hear the patient say, "not really." the doctor came back to the phone and said, "there was no obvious change in his pain in the anesthetic phase," and then he signed off. maybe i'm goofy; maybe it's transcriptionist humor, but i thought it was hilarious.