Oh nooooo. Yikes.

Aargh. Nigel head of the theatre wants to know if I am better and wants to meet. I basically want to just throw him off a roof. I really just wanted to try a month with no theatre to see how it felt. Can I tell him to fuck off, politely, until December?

100%

Dammit, amyth, that's awful. Who are these people? Isn't there some grizzled OB/GYN veteran who's been doing spinals on people in labor since forever they can drag in?

Seriously. Nine tries is way beyond okay. After two they should have called someone else in!

Sophia, tell him no! With glee!

So a reply like

Nigel, thank you for your concern. I can be available to meet after December 1st.

Would. Not be nutty? I honestly think I won't go back.

No, that would totally be fine.

(I might just say "after Thanksgiving," though.)

One of the drawbacks of an otherwise excellent teaching hospital. It was being performed by an attending, a resident and I think an intern? The attending was hands off because he wanted the other two to learn. So they tried seven times, and I finally said, "At what point do we call this a failure?" And they said, "When the attending can't do it." So the attending gave it two tries, and I said, "At what point do we decide to switch to doing this via x-ray?" And the attending said, "Right now." I think he would've kept going. He kept saying how he almost had it, but he could hear that I was Over It, and he backed off.

Sophia, I think that's a perfectly reasonable response.

Dang. That's good that they listened to you,though.

And that is not a nutty response at all, Sophia.

Jesus, amyth, nine times is madness!!

And thinking of my recentish hospital experiences it was bad enough to be there a day, being there for multiple weeks or months is mind-boggling. Though hopefully at least being able to get up and use the bathroom is much more helpful there!

Sophia, saying you're busy until December is TOTALLY fair, that's only a few weeks away, and there's Thanksgiving in there! You're a busy lady which is one of the (many) reasons you regretfully have to leave your position, blah blah blah....I mean, if you totally don't want to go back, you don't have to meet with him at all! (And I suspect that they'll be desperate enough for a long time to take whatever you will give, so keep those boundaries up!!!)

amyth, I know you said the nurses said that happens a lot, but wow that's a lot of stuff for you at once.

I'm glad you stopped them from additional lumbar puncture attempts. I'm pretty sure you can insist that an attending performing the procedure (instead of an intern/resident). It's sometimes hard to advocate for yourself though, I know.

T. also said that since June, 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of our friendship, he wants us to go on a trip anywhere in the world I want to go. I have no idea where I want to go! Any suggestions from the hivemind? It's definitely nice to have things to look forward to (grad school, exciting trip).

Is there any place you have always wanted to go but never have been, maybe because of your ancestry, or a book you read?

If not, are you a lie on a beautiful warm beach person, or more of a see new things person?