Just don’t forget to draw the BIG RED ARROW on your shin pointing towards your knee before ya go!

Seriously, this happens. Even at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, CA. I had surgery on my right ankle done there, very well in fact, but their protocol for making dippy-da-doo-doubly sure they got started on the correct body part was a master class in OCD legal butt-coverage by a medical institution.

Not only was I sporting the above mentioned artwork down my right shin from my knee to my ankle as soon as I was gowned up, but then every single new face that paraded to my bed on the way to the operating table had to ask which leg was to be operated on, I think about six people in all. Yeah even with the blaring advertisement staring them in the face.

Only after I woke up later did I have the inspiration of how I could have perfectly commented on their comically cautious precautions:

The last thing I remembered. just as I was going unconscious, once more the surgeon himself had leaned over my masked face and asked me which leg was the one he should work on. Really. What I could have done, was widen my eyes, then shut them, then exasperatedly exclaimed, “LEG? Ohh shhit…”