eswl, tmbg, early

this is what i read now. i finished the book about dealing with death (death dealers!) a few days ago and i immediately picked this one off my shelves. "complications" by atul gawande. so far i'm totally digging it. another nonfiction book, by a surgeon, about the fallibility of surgeons and of the science of medicine in general. it's well written and (pardon the pun) incisive.

and it probably prompted the dream i had a few hours ago, the dream that woke me and kept me awake. i was a surgeon, planning an eswl for a patient with gallstones. i kept checking and rechecking (as i would) that i had the correct patient in front of me, that i was focusing on the correct quadrant of his (sure the patient was a he. what of it?) abdomen. then of course i had to be sure i had the correct abbreviation in my mind for the procedure. e-s-w-l. then i went back to confirming the patient. at the rate i was going, i would never even begin the procedure.

i woke and i kept going over it. you know sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night, mid-dream maybe, and try and get back to it? return to the dream? i seem to be able to return to the dream fairly frequently. but such was my anxiety within the dream over making sure everything was correct and properly prepared that i kept waking up. absurd.

plus i had lyrics swirling in my head from a perennially favorite band of mine, tmbg.

don't don't don't let's start
this is the worst part
could believe for all the world
that you're my precious little girl
but don't don't don't let's start
i've got a weak heart
and i don't get around how you get around ...