Surgery Shoot
So last night, Chad, Mike, Rosy, Ben, and Matty came over to my place to play poker. Although the action was still heavy around 12:30AM, I had to kick everyone out because I had an early-morning shoot. I’m producing a reality pilot that focuses around a doctor who’s got a really amazing story and personality, ad we’ve been shooting different segments here and there. I was really vocal about my displeasure of this particular shoot, for several reasons:
1. It involved waking up at 6:30AM – something I don’t do all that often anymore. I am “self-employed”, which loosely translated means, “I wake up at noon”.
2. I had to shoot a surgery.
I just got back from the hospital, and you know what? It wasn’t all that bad! Initially, we were going to be filming a total foot amputation, due to a neglected wound – gangrene had set in, and this was the only option left. Fortunately for the patient, and my stomach, the surgical team determined they could try something less traumatic and save this dudes foot. Don’t ask me what the procedure was. All I know is that it involved removing large amounts of bone from the dudes ankle, and re-arranging a lot of local tissue.
The blood was minimal, surprisingly. I was sort of expecting a cartoonish gush of plasma when the blade opened him up, but the cauterizing knife eliminates a lot of that. The two things that really surprised me, were the smell and the sound. Burning flesh smells like, well, burning flesh. It’s not potpourri. It’s like a mixture of burning tires, hot garbage, and iodine. Wanna know what a bone saw sounds like? It sounds exactly like you’d think it sounds, which is to say it’s The Worst Sound Ever. I really wasn’t prepared for the aural and olfactory assault. I breathed through my mouth, and turned down the headphones as to not puke my guts out.
Let's do this...
All in all, still not as bad as I thought it would be. Although, I prefer shooting race cars and rock bands.
Now, back to eating your breakfasts….
Awesome. And hey Zack you look good in scrubs.
Cool. You should try to get on the team that films “The Deadliest Catch”. Then you can tell us whether this experience is worse than when Edgar Hansen bites the head off a herring and eats it for good luck.
Actually, my fiance produced Deadliest Catch. Personally, I can’t bite the head off a herring without some puking afterwards. Edgar on the other hand, probably doesn’t take too much issue with it.
Me and the other 2 producers took the scrubs home. Now we can play out our “look-at-me-in-line-at-Starbucks-I’m-a-doctor” fantasies.
A little puking is fine. It makes for a great teaser shot.
Zack, this is like six degrees of separation. My husband’s cousin was on Deadliest Catch and happened to be in town when it aired. It was exciting to watch with him. He flies an expensive helicopter for the Coast Guard and is under the tab “Dutch” on the web site.
I’m glad you didn’t have to watch an amputation. That would possibly be scarring. I would appreciate my foot much more after this experience. I used to live with nurses and there was a whole section in a text book of accidental amputations (as in right instead of left). That would add some drama to a reality show.
I feel like I should have something better to say but all I keep thinking is: “So, so, so, so, so, so gross.” Zack, I would’ve lasted two seconds in there. Youdaman.
Good move breathing through your mouth instead of your nose Zack….yes, you saved yourself from the putrid smell, but technically…I think you wound up eating it instead of smelling it. How’s your stomach now?
Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow.
JC for the win.
JC, I just changed a nasty diaper, and rotated breathing patterns (when I wasn’t holding my breath).