Fears from a medical student part II: Prepping the patient
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* Arpan V Prabhu
* Ahmed Kashkoush

*   Surgery
*   Care of the elderly
*   Gastroenterology

> > Veins replete with burning medicine, his eyes
> > 
> > shiver shut. Is it quite the same to call this sleep?
> > 
> > He's surrounded by masks, whispering and weaving,
> > 
> > cleansing his arms, piercing taut skin. A catheter
> > 
> > slithers into the anatomical pouch as the soft roar
> > 
> > of razor denudes his abdomen. The tape recruits
> > 
> > every last hair. Paintbrush to belly button, spreading
> > 
> > orange chlorhexidine across the impact line.
> > 
> > The man we know is gone, and in his place—
> > 
> > nine square inches of skin framed by tape and sheets.
> > 
> > The overhead lights turn on. “Time out!” All look up
> > 
> > for a moment and nod,
> > 
> > to show no wrong. To acknowledge
> > 
> > the tissue that was once our patient.
> > 
> > My face turns to the side.
> > 
> > We inhale the smell of seared flesh through our masks.

## Footnotes

*   Note This poem is part of a series of medical student perspectives in medical school, with the first poem entitled, “Fears from a medical student” (also published in *Medical Humanities*), which focused on the difficulty of end-of-life conversations.

*   Competing interests None declared.

*   Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.