Skimming The Knee

We were talking yesterday about Doctors we knew with... interesting personalities. A surgeon I worked for cropped up. He was a brilliant man. A plastic surgeon, with an amazing eye for scars. His speciality was burns and reconstructive surgery. He could look at a scar and, in a flash, tell you how he could release it and give the patient extra degrees of movement. I suppose some of it was learned, but can't help but feel that it was mostly God-given. (or innate, if you're that way inclined)

However, he was the rudest man I have ever come across; and yet I would crawl over hot coals to work for him again. Some people couldn't hack it. And, I believe, he could be mean spirited, but at least he was consistent. I've worked for various bosses who had short fuses, and found that difficult. But this fella... always, always rude.

Our conversations would go like this:

Me: "Good morning, sir. How are you this morning?"
Him: "Why don't you fuck off, you brown nosing little shite?"
Me: "Thanks you, sir. I'll see you on rounds, shall I?"
Him:"Why haven't you taken up something you're more suited to, like occupational homeopathy?"

I cut my teeth operating with him behind me shouting in my ear: "Jesus Christ, boy! What are you doing? The patient's bleeding to death, and you're just buggering about! Sort it out!"

On occasion, he would approach me, and, inevitably, shout: "Shroom! I'm feeling very uncomfortable!.
Me (trying not to screw up another shave and graft) "I'm sorry, sir. Why is that?"
Him: "My fucking trousers are falling down!"
Me: "I'm not sure how I can help, sir..."
Him: "You fucking can't! I just wanted to tell someone..."

Happy Days...