1.You hoard, hide or loot items to keep the last one from being used or so you never run out.

2. You purchase in bulk. You would never procure an item the team needs without bringing at least 3 back with you. This goes for home, too. There's a lot more in your closet than clothes and shoes. You buy in bulk even if you live alone.

3. You put a Border Collie to shame when it comes to herding. You herd surgeons, techs, anesthesia, X-ray and sometimes vendors to get them all in the room at the same time. You do the same thing at home with the kids and spouse. You swear it's like herding psychotic squirrels.

4. You dislike change. New equipment, new disposables, new policies or new standards. The old guard moans, "If it's not broken, leave it alone."

5. You line up or stack everything in your closets, drawers and cabinets in the order of the most frequently used down to the most seldom used. I rotate my linens and socks in this fashion. The grocery stores call this "fronting the shelves."

6. When someone says "tie me up," you don't think it's something sexual or kinky.

7. Cleaning your belly button is right up there with washing your underarms, man/lady parts, shaving your legs and washing your feet. This is higher ranked than Momma's insistence you wear clean underwear. We've cleaned so much gunk out of belly buttons, it ought to go to pathology for gross exam along with the specimen. I'd be humiliated if someone I worked with had to clean out mine during an emergency surgery.

8. When opening a bottle of something at home, you lay the lid down on the counter with the inside of the lid up. If you drop it on the floor, your brain goes into the sterile mode and there's an argument with your sterile conscience as to what to do.

9. You find yourself wearing gloves at home to wash dishes, clean counters, mop the floor, clean the bathroom (even if it's just you living there) and to prepare food. I'm contemplating wearing gloves when I go to the world's top retailer. Maybe a mask, too.

10. The thought of you undergoing surgery scares you more than it does your patients.

11. You check out dates on everything you buy. You routinely go through your drawers, cabinets and the refrigerator. Your friends and family have caught you going through theirs, too.

12. You have hand sanitizer in your car, the bathroom next to the soap, in the kitchen next to the hand soap, on the bedside table, on your makeup table and in your locker. I'm seriously thinking about putting some outside my front door.

13. There is no 5-second rule with you. Nowhere. No way. No how. If it falls on the floor, it's trashed. Not at best friend's, family's and not even at Momma's.

14. You watch a movie with friends and you point out all the mistakes in scenes having to do with anything medical. Being a medical consultant for a movie is on my bucket list.

15. Your OCD makes you tear up forms because you didn't fill them out perfectly.

16. Multiple pairs of scrubs at home are slowly replacing your other clothes and you're taking them on trips with you as loungewear.

17. The only tape you have to wrap a co-worker's going-away present is silk, paper or plastic.

18. You leave work totally exhausted due to a day straight out of an insane asylum and you think if I can just lie down for just a minute, I can get a second wind for the chores I have to do before going to bed. You're out cold before your head hits the pillow. Suddenly you sit straight up in bed and look at the clock and it's 6:30. You jump out of bed screaming obscenities because you've overslept and you're still in the clothes you wore to work. You call work to tell them you're on your way — only to discover it's 6:30 at night.

19. When bathing or showering, you start from the center and wash out, just like you do on a skin prep.

20. You think the best photograph of yourself lately is the one on your ID badge.

21. After work, you know a shower isn't going to be enough. You're going to need an autoclave. OSM