Big nifty words

I've always been fascinated with words. Specifically, the way that some of them sound. In nursing school, it was pheochromocytoma.

Pinky's OB fistula post made me remember that one night in the OR, I learned a new word. Colovesicular-cutaneous. It was describing a fistula. This is pretty damn high on the list of things that I don't ever want happening to me, or you, or anyone else. It went from the colon, through the bladder and out the skin on the abdomen. We had to attempt to repair it every three weeks for a while. It kept recurring.

If you've ever gone into the belly surgically, three weeks after just having been there is a hot mess of forming scar tissue. We had also been closing her up with Marlex mesh each time so it took a good 45 minutes just to get into the abdomen each time.

This fistula wasn't a result of an obstetrical incident, but it could have been. I'm thankful that we have options here that they don't in Africa.