Lu Wenbin cooked up a pot of stewed pig trotters and took it to the waiting room in the operating theater at noon.
The hospital's operating theater was clean, but the requirements for the furnishings in the operating theater were not strict, and it was also impossible for them to be strict. One such example was the Central Sterile Services Department located not far away. Its warehouse, which stored disposable supplies, contained hundreds of disinfectant boxes, multiples boxes of disposable gloves, masks, various plastic bags, and even medical devices. However, the boxes were delivered by trucks because the porters could not disinfect themselves every single time they dropped by…
Outside the operating theater, the furnishings of the office, dressing room and waiting room were also essential.
Lu Wenbin's pig trotters gave out an alluring fragrance.
After a while, the doctors from the operating theaters gathered around him one after another.
"I haven't eaten since this morning."
"I haven't eaten since yesterday."
"I haven't eaten."
Everyone spoke "modestly" as they took a bite of the pig trotters.
Ling Ran also found a fat pig trotter. He wore a pair of latex gloves and proceeded to eat it.
"The pig trotters were bought by Doctor Ling, and I stewed them. This is pure stew; it is safe and delicious," Lu Wenbin said happily.
"You make your own stew? You know how to store it?" Doctor Zhou, who was resting in the operating theater in the name of observing the surgery, could not help but look at Lu Wenbin.
"It's not difficult." Lu Wenbin rarely had a chance to show off. He smiled happily and said, "Once you're done with the stew, fish out all the meat from it and use a fine gauze to sieve the soup to make sure that there's no meat left behind. The rest of the stew can then be stored in the refrigerator. After a few days, take the stew out and boil it again. You can use it to cook meat. It'll be fresh and tasty. No matter what you use the stew for, be it chicken or whatever, it'll still be delicious. You can also use it to cook pork ribs or mushrooms…"
"Next time, you can cook some mushrooms. Mushrooms are good and healthy," Doctor Zhou said as he patted his thigh, "Come to me later in the afternoon, I'll give you the money. You can't let Ling Ran pay for it all the time."
"Stew a chicken for me."
"Chicken thighs, the thigh is good."
"Stew some chicken feet and chicken wings. Right, chicken gizzards too. Can you buy them?"
"That reminds me. Duck wings, give me some duck wings."
A bunch of requests was thrown at him, and Lu Wenbin instantly felt stunned.
"Hey, make sure you remember. Don't mix them up," Zheng Pei, who was next to Lu Wenbin, reminded him.
"I'll remember." Lu Wenbin sighed in his heart and said, "Doctor Zhou wants mushrooms; Doctor Huang wants chicken; Doctor Liu wants chicken thighs; Doctor Hu wants chicken feet, chicken wings, and chicken gizzards; Doctor Qian wants duck wings…"
Doctor Zhou smiled and said, "Create a group. Just call it the Stew Group. You buy the ingredients, and after you buy them, take a picture. Whoever ordered them must pay for them."
The matter was settled with just a few words. Lu Wenbin became happy and quickly took out his mobile phone.
He had just finished his standardized training and returned to the department. He urgently needed to adapt to the atmosphere there. Although starting off his assimilation to the department as Doctor Gravy or Doctor Stew was not perfect, he could still accept it.
"Doctor Ling, what kind of stew do you want?" Lu Wenbin built the WeChat group and specifically asked Ling Ran. Currently, Ling Ran was actually his superior.
Ling Ran was very loyal to his choice. "Pig trotters."
"Oh… okay." Lu Wenbin could not help but say, "Don't you want to pick something else? I'm still going to end up cooking, anyway. Won't you get tired of eating pig trotters all the time?"
"No." Ling Ran's gaze was sincere.
After he was done eating the pig trotters, Ling Ran washed his hands and returned to the operating theater to begin observing the patient's hand as he lay on the operating table.
"Ready?" Ling Ran asked as he put his hands up.
Su Jiafu, the anesthetist was occupied when he answered, "He's in a stable condition."
"I can begin draping right away," Wang Jia, the young nurse replied. "Doctor Ling, this patient has three of his fingers injured. Will you need a long time to suture them?"
"I will only know the specifics after I perform the incision. What's wrong?" Ling Ran asked.
"I heard there are still patients that will be sent over here."
"Yes, four are scheduled today." Ling Ran licked his lips. He felt refreshed, just like how he would feel after he tasted dew after suffering through a long drought.
Wang Jia took a look at his movements. Her face was slightly red. She paused for a while before she said, "Doctor Ling, I've been operating for several days, and yesterday, I did three more, then two this morning. I can't follow up anymore. Can the next one be transferred to someone else?"
"Huh? Oh, of course." Ling Ran could understand Wang Jia's situation. The nurses' work pressure was not as big as the chief surgeons', but their workload was not small, especially for the scrub nurses. Paying full attention to surgery was an incredible challenge to the body and mind.
"The new nurse isn't so familiar with the M-Tang technique. You have to do it slowly. You can't do it as fast as you did when we were as a group," Wang Jia reminded him, though her words contained an underlying meaning.
Ling Ran did not ponder about the underlying meaning of her words. He simply nodded and said, "I know. I'll be slower when I start."
Wang Jia nodded vigorously and said to herself, 'When I go back, I'll go to sleep and get rid of my eyebags. I'll apply a mask, put on some makeup, and come back for my shift."
When Wang Jia thought of this, her tone became gentle and she said, "Aren't you tired? Don't fall asleep while you perform surgery."
"How can I fall asleep during a surgery?" Ling Ran smiled. For him, the very orderly operating theater would only make people more excited.
However, once he remembered that he had to take into consideration how he was to allocate his physical strength throughout the day, he put a little more thought into it and said, "I'll try to sit down while I perform this surgery."
After that, he took an empty stool, sat down, and began to adjust its height according to the operating table and other equipment.
Su Jiafu originally stood before the free stool Ling Ran took. He had been checking the drugs for anesthesia at that time. He thought in resignation. 'Fortunately, we have more stools today since old Huo isn't here.'
He shook his head, and as he pondered about it, he filled in the last set of data. Then he took a stool from the corner.
At this time, Ling Ran said, "Doctor Lu, aren't you tired? You can go and get a stool too."
Su Jiafu only hesitated for a moment before he had to helplessly watch as Lu Wenbin stood up and used the toes of his left foot to drag the stool inch by inch towards the operating table.
Su Jiafu suddenly wanted to laugh. 'You crazy surgeons, you're actually looking for chairs in the operating theater? Are chairs now mushrooms that sprout everywhere in operating theaters? We don't have a lot of them!'