I got my period...

A few weeks ago I was assisting on a c-section and got called out to help with a stabbing victim that just came into the surgical theatre. Young kid (18), I should say young MAN because he's married and has a child. He was an employee at the local hardware store and got stabbed while at work (by another employee). There was a fight, obviously, and it seems that they both pulled out knives. Anyway...we opened up his belly from sternum to pubic bone and his abdomen was completely filled with blood. Fixed the hole in his liver and checked everything else out and stitched him up and we were out of there.

The O.R looks like a crime scene by the time we get done and there is practically no safe place to step. So we stand there and remove our surgical gowns as we wait for the nurses to bring the mops in. We start to undress and as the head surgeon looks down he notices the front of his scrubs from from one thigh to the other is completely saturated with blood and he says: "hey look guys, I got my period."

I couldn't stop laughing, but instinctively I also glanced down--kind of like you do when you see someone else with their zipper down--to see if I got 'mine.' Everyone in the room noticed that I had checked and they thought it was hilarious. That was my first trauma case and everyone there treated it like it was a rite of passage. They were genuinely happy for me and sort of welcoming me into the club. So because I was now "one of them" they started teasing about other stuff as well and really let me have it. It was a great day.