Superstitions, Routines, and Rituals

I wear lucky socks. They are pink with flowers and are horribly inappropriate (“Screwing up is part of the program” is sewn in big letters on the top), but I will wear them until they’ve got irredeemable holes in them because, well…they’re my lucky socks. They are worn weekly and saved for whichever day I’m scheduled to work with a “difficult” surgeon. So far, they have never failed to protect me from surgical crabassery (And “crabassery” is totally a word. Screw you, Microsoft Word.). My brain understands that luck has nothing to do with my performance on any given day, but somewhere in my subconscious I still believe that my socks can make or break my success.

But I’m not the only one weirdo… Everyone in the OR has routines and rituals. One surgeon I knew wanted his room kept at 68 degrees. Not 67. Not 69. 68 degrees EXACTLY. He was so freaky about this that he installed his own battery-operated thermometer in his regularly scheduled OR because he didn’t trust the room thermostat. When I was orienting, someone actually took the time to point this out to me. “Here’s the fire extinguisher. Here’s the suture cabinet. Here’s Dr. Pickypants’ thermometer. FOR GOD’S SAKE, DON’T TOUCH HIS THERMOMETER!” Nothing strange about that right?

Music is another thing that people get a little weird about. A surgeon from my clinical days was a huge Jimmy Buffet fan. We’re talking “I’ve seen Jimmy Buffet 15+ times” level fandom. We listened to Sirius XM’s Margaritaville channel every single day. Because of this, I now associate any Jimmy Buffet music to being in surgery. I’m pretty sure Jimmy didn’t intend for folks to associate “Cheeseburger in Paradise” to clamping and cutting blood vessels, but that’s what happened. (Sorry Jimmy.)

At least Margaritaville was fun! The music was happy, upbeat, and kept us all in good spirits. A different surgeon had a single John Denver playlist he always listened to. The playlist only had about 45 minutes of music on it. If you had a complicated procedure, you might hear “Rocky Mountain High” three or four times per case. A full day of cases with him would make you totally lose your marbles. (John Denver, the only thing you fill up my senses with is RAGE.)

In addition to music, thermometers, and socks, surgical routines and rituals can extend to food, clothing, surgical time-outs, and any other number of things. Luckily, surgical beings are not alone in their odd habits. For example, Wade Boggs, Hall of Fame third baseman for the Yankees reportedly had an elaborate routine wherein he had to field exactly 150 ground balls in warm-ups, start batting practice at precisely 5:17, and run wind sprints starting precisely at 7:17. In addition, he earned the moniker “Chicken Man” due to his regular pre-game feast of fowl.

On one side, surgery is a world of logic and skill. On the other side, surgery can show us thing that defy explanation. However you look at it, surgery is a complex act that causes complex emotions and if it takes Jimmy Buffet or magic socks or supreme control of the thermostat to give us piece of mind, I say okay! Why not let our idiosyncrasies play a role in our every day life? All things considered, my sock superstition doesn’t seem quite so neurotic after all.

Stay sunny and stay sterile.