A lot really can happen in five days
Last week was one for the ages.
It had everything from regret, disappointment, frustration (by the bucketload), swearing and tears to humour, laughter, drinking, giggles and confidence. and compliments.
and free Sky movies for three weeks.
The first day I got to do a robotic case, and though this is only the fifth or sixth case I've done so far solo it was so smooth that the consultant surgeon said "Well done" to me as the case was coming off the table after 4 hours of surgery.
A consultant says well done to me? wow. MASSIVE, MA-HOU-SIVE ego boost right there.
so much so I don't even notice that i'm off work 30 minutes late.
Tuesday is a half day and my broadband fails at noon. I ring up the Sky people who can't fix the fault and in way of apology give me a couple of the Sky movie channels free for the next 3 months. Ta very much, I've now seen Crimson Tide four times in the last three days and the fourth (and I pray the final) Final Destination film which had me laughing but not for the reasons the director would be hoping for.
Wednesday was another half day which was a good thing as we were all going for a meal/drinks/educational talk down in one of the posh Bristol hotels. We had our own conference room and free wine which, staying true to the nursing stereotype we all proceeded to guzzle by the gallon. This is a Wednesday guys, a school night, why we thought drinking was a good idea I'll never know - but it gets better!
Following the meal, which was so-so, four of us decide to stay out a while longer. it is now half eleven and we all have to be in work for 8am the following day. Not put off by this we trek off to Bristol's golden mile and try and find a place serving.
We do, and spend the next hour and a half sipping drinks at the bar and chatting rubbish as the bar staff look on exasperated and silently willing us to leave. Eventually they have to kick us out at half midnight.
On a school night!!! We all have to be up in 5 hours.
Finally the taxi arrives to get us home and I crash into bed at 1am only to wake up 5 hours later.
Now I'm sure some of this for you guys is a regular occurrence. But I just don't do it. Sleep is too precious mid-week to lose given the physicality of the work we do. But I digress.
Staggering into work on time I find that some of my partners-in-drink have already camped in the staff room nursing coffee and a variety of legal medications which will prove essential as the day progresses. Then the two worst culprits arrive with coffee and croissants purchased in the local Lidel superstore next door to the hospital. A very surreal moment occurs as we all sit round the table dunking croissants into coffee until 8am.
Of course the best thing of this whole affair is that as the surgeons joined us in this drink session they're just a aware of the situation, and some of them look as fragile as we do. So there is a small segment of leeway to save our pride and sore heads (not to mention queasy stomachs) and they refrain from flogging us to death with repeated shouts of "Send for the next!!!" every ten minutes.
This would have been fine but as we all crash at 3pm from a combination of caffeine come-down and sheer lack of sleep the coinciding list overruns on both side means I just get off duty on time on the cusp of 5.30pm and the other crew have to stay til half seven thanks to a catch-22 situation that was created through mis-communication on everybody's part. No doubt caused by both parties nursing hangovers when the arrangements were made.
Which is yet another example why you should never drink and negotiate.
On to Friday...
Friday is a killer for two reasons. One, I'm working with a surgeon I don't like very much (read: AT ALL) and two the previous evening I got into a jumbled arrangement with a BT phone technician over when he can come over to the apartment and fix the phone line. Turns out BT had crossed two phone lines which consequently knocked out my broadband and was causing all sorts of problems with my phone. I agree vocally that he'll be able to come over at 11am. He would then later leave a message on my phone (that I wouldn't get nor look for) that he'd be coming over at 8am. I'm not there, I'm in work. He gets mad and leaves messages on my phone I call him and get an earful, I respond in kind yelling down the phone at him and in the end my mom, dad, neighbour, her mom, her dad and the builders Bovis Homes all have to get involved to get this damn thing sorted. Eventually it is. And I don't have to scrub for the surgeon I don't like very much (read: AT ALL) at all.
In the afternoon I scrub for an American consultant on a laparscopic nephrectomy. Removal of cancerous kidney for those of us not blessed with heavy medical knowledge.
I've worked with him in the past few months and I can say that when my first scrub occurred i was pretty slick, and what's the saying about making a first impression? Well I made a good one. As a result of this my relationship with the man is first rate. Not only am I polite but I also pay attention to what he's doing (with the limited knowledge I have of nephrectomies) and what he's musing in order to stay ahead of him as best I can.
The point is that not only did he compliment me twice ("You're good") when I got him things incredibly quickly. But it also makes me work harder, be my best (excuse the pun) and keep things ticking over in my head for future scrubs. What i mean by the last part is that i remember what stitches he likes without having to ask him, what instruments he's likely to use and most importantly what he codes certain instruments. All surgeons call different instruments different things, in this case this surgeon calls 'Pietalands' 'Right Angles'. Don't know why, the jaws on the instrument isn't even right-angled, but he does and this mean we have a better rapport than him having to repeat things and me fumbling every second instrument. This in turn makes his job easier, slicker, faster and more beneficial for the patient. Everyone's a winner. Especially me.
So yeah. All things considered this was one of THE BEST weeks in my working life. The real high note was the Wednesday night meal/drinking session. We all went out and we bonded. And that was a tremendous achievement. The crowning point was when a colleague who I haven't really gelled with saw me in a skirt on Wednesday night and declared in front of the whole staff-room that I should wear a skirt more often as it suited me.
Wow. Praise indeed.
And I hope a portent and introduction of many more shiny nights out in future.
It had everything from regret, disappointment, frustration (by the bucketload), swearing and tears to humour, laughter, drinking, giggles and confidence. and compliments.
and free Sky movies for three weeks.
The first day I got to do a robotic case, and though this is only the fifth or sixth case I've done so far solo it was so smooth that the consultant surgeon said "Well done" to me as the case was coming off the table after 4 hours of surgery.
A consultant says well done to me? wow. MASSIVE, MA-HOU-SIVE ego boost right there.
so much so I don't even notice that i'm off work 30 minutes late.
Tuesday is a half day and my broadband fails at noon. I ring up the Sky people who can't fix the fault and in way of apology give me a couple of the Sky movie channels free for the next 3 months. Ta very much, I've now seen Crimson Tide four times in the last three days and the fourth (and I pray the final) Final Destination film which had me laughing but not for the reasons the director would be hoping for.
Wednesday was another half day which was a good thing as we were all going for a meal/drinks/educational talk down in one of the posh Bristol hotels. We had our own conference room and free wine which, staying true to the nursing stereotype we all proceeded to guzzle by the gallon. This is a Wednesday guys, a school night, why we thought drinking was a good idea I'll never know - but it gets better!
Following the meal, which was so-so, four of us decide to stay out a while longer. it is now half eleven and we all have to be in work for 8am the following day. Not put off by this we trek off to Bristol's golden mile and try and find a place serving.
We do, and spend the next hour and a half sipping drinks at the bar and chatting rubbish as the bar staff look on exasperated and silently willing us to leave. Eventually they have to kick us out at half midnight.
On a school night!!! We all have to be up in 5 hours.
Finally the taxi arrives to get us home and I crash into bed at 1am only to wake up 5 hours later.
Now I'm sure some of this for you guys is a regular occurrence. But I just don't do it. Sleep is too precious mid-week to lose given the physicality of the work we do. But I digress.
Staggering into work on time I find that some of my partners-in-drink have already camped in the staff room nursing coffee and a variety of legal medications which will prove essential as the day progresses. Then the two worst culprits arrive with coffee and croissants purchased in the local Lidel superstore next door to the hospital. A very surreal moment occurs as we all sit round the table dunking croissants into coffee until 8am.
Of course the best thing of this whole affair is that as the surgeons joined us in this drink session they're just a aware of the situation, and some of them look as fragile as we do. So there is a small segment of leeway to save our pride and sore heads (not to mention queasy stomachs) and they refrain from flogging us to death with repeated shouts of "Send for the next!!!" every ten minutes.
This would have been fine but as we all crash at 3pm from a combination of caffeine come-down and sheer lack of sleep the coinciding list overruns on both side means I just get off duty on time on the cusp of 5.30pm and the other crew have to stay til half seven thanks to a catch-22 situation that was created through mis-communication on everybody's part. No doubt caused by both parties nursing hangovers when the arrangements were made.
Which is yet another example why you should never drink and negotiate.
On to Friday...
Friday is a killer for two reasons. One, I'm working with a surgeon I don't like very much (read: AT ALL) and two the previous evening I got into a jumbled arrangement with a BT phone technician over when he can come over to the apartment and fix the phone line. Turns out BT had crossed two phone lines which consequently knocked out my broadband and was causing all sorts of problems with my phone. I agree vocally that he'll be able to come over at 11am. He would then later leave a message on my phone (that I wouldn't get nor look for) that he'd be coming over at 8am. I'm not there, I'm in work. He gets mad and leaves messages on my phone I call him and get an earful, I respond in kind yelling down the phone at him and in the end my mom, dad, neighbour, her mom, her dad and the builders Bovis Homes all have to get involved to get this damn thing sorted. Eventually it is. And I don't have to scrub for the surgeon I don't like very much (read: AT ALL) at all.
In the afternoon I scrub for an American consultant on a laparscopic nephrectomy. Removal of cancerous kidney for those of us not blessed with heavy medical knowledge.
I've worked with him in the past few months and I can say that when my first scrub occurred i was pretty slick, and what's the saying about making a first impression? Well I made a good one. As a result of this my relationship with the man is first rate. Not only am I polite but I also pay attention to what he's doing (with the limited knowledge I have of nephrectomies) and what he's musing in order to stay ahead of him as best I can.
The point is that not only did he compliment me twice ("You're good") when I got him things incredibly quickly. But it also makes me work harder, be my best (excuse the pun) and keep things ticking over in my head for future scrubs. What i mean by the last part is that i remember what stitches he likes without having to ask him, what instruments he's likely to use and most importantly what he codes certain instruments. All surgeons call different instruments different things, in this case this surgeon calls 'Pietalands' 'Right Angles'. Don't know why, the jaws on the instrument isn't even right-angled, but he does and this mean we have a better rapport than him having to repeat things and me fumbling every second instrument. This in turn makes his job easier, slicker, faster and more beneficial for the patient. Everyone's a winner. Especially me.
So yeah. All things considered this was one of THE BEST weeks in my working life. The real high note was the Wednesday night meal/drinking session. We all went out and we bonded. And that was a tremendous achievement. The crowning point was when a colleague who I haven't really gelled with saw me in a skirt on Wednesday night and declared in front of the whole staff-room that I should wear a skirt more often as it suited me.
Wow. Praise indeed.
And I hope a portent and introduction of many more shiny nights out in future.