SurgeXperiences is a bimonthly blog carnival bringing you stories from the front lines of the operating room. For more information, click here.

This week’s (loose) theme was “My First Time.” So, in order of submission (for the most part), with those closest to the theme first, here are the posts!

Firsts
rlbates, a plastic surgeon from Little Rock, AR, recalls her first surgery rotation during her Junior year that happened to coincide with a record-breaking heatwave in July of 1980.

Captain Atopic writes about his first time being awake in the OR and his first time in a non-English speaking country in a appropriately titled post: My First Surgery.

Jeffrey Leow from Monash Medical Student shares his reactions to the many firsts in surgery in a post with visual aids aplenty and a nifty soundtrack too.

David Gorski over at Science Based Medicine writes about his first encounter with The Orange Man and the lesson that meeting taught him about alternative medicine.

Bongi, over at Other Things Amanzi, writes about his first time performing a splenectomy which, incidentally, was also his first time seeing one: see one, do one, teach one. Bongi also shares a humorous story about teaching a medical student how to do a lymph node biopsy and sending the student in(to) the deep end.

The Scalpel’s Edge features a post about the first time DrCris begins to seriously consider a career as a surgeon.

T vents a bit about the specialty of Anesthesiology after a patient announces to her that she is in a ROAD specialty and that her job is “easy”… which leads her to, in the end, remember the reason she decided on her specialty. The post is titled: Hit the Road, Jack, and Dontcha Come Back No More, No More, No More, No More…” (just kidding, of course).

Over at Nursepractitionerblog’s Weblog is a post titled My most interesting patient that discusses some memorable firsts like changing a bedpan for the first time and the first time giving an IV to a gentleman scheduled to have both legs amputated.

Opinion
Lucia Li, in her first post on The Differential, shares her views on Women in Surgery.

In a post titled Disaster Waiting to Happen, a new blogger from New Delhi writes a short paragraph about his thoughts after surgery at SurgeryLounge. Let’s welcome him to the blogosphere.

Maggie Mahar at HealthBeatBlog.org writes about the Cultural Divide between Surgeons and Physicians.

And related to the last post, rlbates offers her comments on a recent article (A Surgeon’s Outburst) printed in the Boston Globe and the article by Maggie Mahar mentioned above.

DrCris also writes about TURFing and asks, Can’t Surgeons and Physicians Work Together?

Jeffrey Parks offers his take on Diane Suchetka’s Continuing Anti-Doctor Crusade in a post discussing the newly released list of “never events.” MSNBC.com reported on this list last week. Another article at MSNBC.com reported that surgical errors cost $1.5 billion a year.

News
In To Heal the Wounded, Donald McNeil writes about a new textbook for surgeons on the battlefield. An interesting read for those interested in military medicine. The story is found at NYTimes.com.

bookofjoe compares an article from the Scientific American and a study that appeared in the British Medical Joural about what happens when a surgeon sneezes.

Reuters.com carries a story discussing the ethics relating to waiting for death and the quick-harvesting of hearts.

Thanks to everyone who submitted. Thanks for allowing me to host this edition of SurgeXperiences. The next edition of SurgeXperiences will be hosted by DrCris a Scalpel’s Edge.