5 years ago
5 years ago:I was a sophomore in college and attending my Tuesday morning molecular and cellular biology lab. At 7:30 am, Lorriane and I were dripping reactant onto denaturing proteins every three minutes, and right before nine, our lecture professor came by and told us that something had happened. He wanted us to know so we weren’t confused when we saw people upset outside. Planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. We didn’t have a TV in the lab so they dug up the dinky little Bio Department radio to listen to news broadcasts as it happened. I’m pretty sure by the time we got the radio, the second tower had fallen. It’s all a blur of just standing there listening to the voices on the radio, hearing what was the end of the world as we knew it, punctuated every once in a while by Lorriane tapping me on the shoulder, ‘It’s been three minutes. Allie, it’s been three minutes.’
It’s hard to count three minutes when you are wondering if there will be another one minute at all.
This year:
At 8:30 I scrubbed into a hysterectomy on my OB rotation. It was partway through when I got there, and I was immediately put to work holding retractors. I was focusing on trying to see what I was not at any angle to see and following a procedure that I could not follow because I came late. My attending was cutting things and suturing away when he checked the clock and said, ‘it’s not quite time for the moment of silence.’ I looked at him blankly, asking myself if there was normally a moment of silence during this operation or if this was a pre-pimping ritual. Then I remembered and saw we still had about five more minutes till it was time. The operation continued and was lengthened by aforementioned surgeon dropping several instruments on the floor and needing replacements. The next time I looked at the clock it was 9:15.
Amazing how time moves when you are clueless as to what is coming next.
posted by Allie @ 1:54 PM
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