GRRRRR Some things you see in the OR just make you want to scream.

Did anyone see that? After tripping over a C-arm cord, I narrowly avoided introducing my face to the floor. That would have been many (never mind you how many) years of cool down the drain. Then I remembered the ORs are equipped with cameras. Yeah, they saw it. I could imagine them in the office, giggling over my graceless recovery. In slow-motion instant replay. Heck, I'd watch that. Some annoyances are kind of funny, even if it's only later, after they've annoyed you.

• Drug shortages. Bupivacaine 30ml, for example, has been back-ordered for an eternity, not just here but everywhere. What's the hold-up? A missing secret ingredient? Bottlemaker can't keep up with the demand for little glass vials? Maybe whoever's responsible should visit an OR table for a little show-and-tell on why these medications are important. Tell me if this hurts.

• Stretchers with cords. Think about that for a second: a stretcher (with wheels, for moving around) with a cord (that plugs into an outlet in the wall). For sure, electric power makes your job easier — no manual cranking or foot-pedaling to raise a 300-plus-pounder — but who comes up with this stuff? Also, take note: Stretchers usually won't roll over even the thinnest wires.

• Inconsiderate colleagues. Don't you just love people who take the last one of something on the supply shelves and leave the empty box, just to let the rest of us know that it's gone? These may be the same people who put broken equipment away (possibly the only time they ever put anything away) for someone else to discover.

• Home-laundering scrubs. I don't feel good about wearing scrubs in from outside or washing them myself. Linen services can be hit-or-miss — ever unfold a bedsheet to find an EKG lead stuck to it? — but sometimes you get scrubs with notes from previous occupants: phone numbers, names, miscellaneous digits, random words. If I called those numbers and spoke the words, could I access some offshore bank accounts while I'm waiting for this never-ending case to finish?

• Disappearing IV poles. Where do IV poles go to hide? I know they're not being put away, because no one ever puts anything away when they're done using it. I know all my colleagues' secret hoarding places, and they're not there. Is someone taking them home for household use or building materials in a DIY project?

• Economizing on personal protective equipment. Cheap exam gloves are the worst. When you don a pair and they split right up the middle of your palm, it makes you wonder how much of the wet stuff you've been touching is finding its way through pinholes. This is how a glove gives you the finger.

• Tape. Tape's not just for dressings anymore. Silk tape, paper tape, adhesive tape, plastic tape: We use it like it's duct tape. If something is broke, we tape it. IV pole won't stay up? Tape it. Equipment won't stay on the IV pole? Tape it, and use a lot of it. But tape can be irritating, too, and not just to a patient's skin. If you need that piece of equipment on the pole and you can't take the pole with you, you're looking at 15 minutes with scissors to cut it free.

• Fluid waste. You know where the flood from a scope case goes. Even if you have a fluid waste management system that doesn't suck (which is to say, it sucks really well), a lot of that nasty water still ends up on the floor. And underfoot. Which we track all over the OR, to the locker room and wherever we store our shoes at day's end. Maybe we should have a welcome mat right outside the OR door.