"Live and learn"
Well, the last two days have passed in urology lore. The lore which entitles them forever to be known as 'Leningrad Days'.
As in reference to the Battle for. Relentless, 4-6 hours + in length, bloody, dirty, nasty, filled with swear words and the end result being a thoroughly knackered scrub and surgical crew.
First one was penciled to be a frickin' nightmare as we'd planned for a 1 hour overrun the day before. But the surgeon was confident he could have us closed by five thirty. Patient came off the table at ten to seven.
By then I was physically shot. My back had been hurting all day and I'd overloaded myself on painkiller and biofreeze gel trying to soothe it. When the robotic case converted to open things got even worse and we had to get a couple units of O-Negative in the patient asap. People swear a lot when the suction's filling up with blood faster than a modern bathtub.
I got home that night and had a dinner of rice pudding and bananas. A throwback to my long 13 hour shifts in London when I was training.
Friday morning. We get in, and it's the same scrub crew and surgeon. And given the nature of the day we slam the pedal to the metal on the dot of 8am. First two cases are taken care of by me, and the third kicks off at half past noon.
The third case is big, requiring a change of position midway through. Even now I'm not sure what the plan was - I still don't have my urology lexicon and glossary down just yet - but it involved unplugging a kidney through one hole, then sewing the patient up, repositioning them and taking it out via a second hole.
The removal of the kidney was fine, but as the clock continued to roll I found myself having to scrub in at 4.30pm to cover my friend who was going home.
Then the surgeon hit the bowel.
Shit. Literally.
So when 6pm arrived I scrubbed out and another nurse scrubbed in. I staggered out the hospital a few minutes later completely exhausted.
I think my exhaustion had to do with a mix of stress over the case (big cases can go wrong with staggering speed), no recovery from the previous day, no decent food the previous evening and my body slowing becoming hormone free as the prerequisite for the pending surgery.
As a result I could only manage half the workout today int he gym and with the exception of my back i didn't lift at all.
here's hoping i can survive my last week in work pre-op. 5 days but two of the five are half days so hopefully it'll be ok. if the weather doesn't mess everything up.
As in reference to the Battle for. Relentless, 4-6 hours + in length, bloody, dirty, nasty, filled with swear words and the end result being a thoroughly knackered scrub and surgical crew.
First one was penciled to be a frickin' nightmare as we'd planned for a 1 hour overrun the day before. But the surgeon was confident he could have us closed by five thirty. Patient came off the table at ten to seven.
By then I was physically shot. My back had been hurting all day and I'd overloaded myself on painkiller and biofreeze gel trying to soothe it. When the robotic case converted to open things got even worse and we had to get a couple units of O-Negative in the patient asap. People swear a lot when the suction's filling up with blood faster than a modern bathtub.
I got home that night and had a dinner of rice pudding and bananas. A throwback to my long 13 hour shifts in London when I was training.
Friday morning. We get in, and it's the same scrub crew and surgeon. And given the nature of the day we slam the pedal to the metal on the dot of 8am. First two cases are taken care of by me, and the third kicks off at half past noon.
The third case is big, requiring a change of position midway through. Even now I'm not sure what the plan was - I still don't have my urology lexicon and glossary down just yet - but it involved unplugging a kidney through one hole, then sewing the patient up, repositioning them and taking it out via a second hole.
The removal of the kidney was fine, but as the clock continued to roll I found myself having to scrub in at 4.30pm to cover my friend who was going home.
Then the surgeon hit the bowel.
Shit. Literally.
So when 6pm arrived I scrubbed out and another nurse scrubbed in. I staggered out the hospital a few minutes later completely exhausted.
I think my exhaustion had to do with a mix of stress over the case (big cases can go wrong with staggering speed), no recovery from the previous day, no decent food the previous evening and my body slowing becoming hormone free as the prerequisite for the pending surgery.
As a result I could only manage half the workout today int he gym and with the exception of my back i didn't lift at all.
here's hoping i can survive my last week in work pre-op. 5 days but two of the five are half days so hopefully it'll be ok. if the weather doesn't mess everything up.