Today on gravity rounds (my favorite because you start at the highest floor of the hospital where you have patients and spiral down to the lowest floor, thus being closest to the exit when you are done), we were seeing one of our last people a very pleasant gentleman whose primary diagnosis was invasive bladder cancer with the complicating factor of having been treated for prostate cancer in the past. The day before we had taken him to the operating room removed both of the above offending organs and given him an abdominal wall urinary diversion.
He wasn't in his room, but was meandering about (gold star for that. People often don't realize but they have to get up and move after surgery. Oddly enough don't seem to want to with a humungous incision running the length of the abdomen, go figure). As we approached he exclaimed that he had been looking for us because he had something very important to share.
He then went one to tell us that since we had removed his bladder and prostate (approximately 24 hours before), he had discovered that he could now play guitar (having never done so before) and even better he could play lynard skynard's freebird perfectly (apparently a long standing dream of his) while my attending incredulously looked on (everyone knows the smile that starts sincerely but then continues to widen towards disbelief).
There might be a scientific explanation for this, however it is likely summed up by the fact that we prescribe pretty amazing IV medication postoperatively.
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