Isn't it awesome when you can look to the past and see how random events, done without purpose or plan, form one logical, continuous chain of events?
16 months ago: I go to a doctor and he uses a flexible laryngoscope to examine my vocal cords.
14 months ago: I start working for that doctor, preparing other patients for the scope, applying topical anesthesia and setting up the equipment.
6 months ago: I purchase and assemble equipment (camera, xenon light source, plasma tv, recording adaptor) for a new fiberoptic laryngoscope system in the office.
2 weeks ago: The physician shows me how to hold a laryngoscope. After hours, when patients have left, I practice controlling it.
Today, 11:00 AM: I prepare a patient for the scope, placing local anesthesia and decongestant in both nostrils. For the first time, I decide to place an additional cotton swab in the left nostril. Something about that side feels too loose.
Today, 11:04 AM: The patient decides to tell me his life story, and requests to know mine. Normally, I make an exit, citing a busy schedule. However, today I decide to stay and converse.
Today, 11:10 AM: The doctor tells me to glove up and operate the scope myself, while he stands beside me. I hold it as he showed me. The patient, knowing my background, enthusiastically agrees. The left nostril is clear. I slowly insert the scope along the floor of the nose. Crouching low, sneaking under the inferior turbinate, I slip by the Eustachian tube and make a nosedive into full view of the trachea.
Today was a 60 second experience made possible by 14 months of work. And it was totally worth it.
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