On nursing

[miss_nancee]

Nursing school is turning out to be one of the best choices I have ever made. I got to see open heart surgery yesterday in clinical. It. Was. AMAZINGGGGG. You haven't lived until you've seen a heart beating in someone chest. When I first got into the OR, everyone was busy and told me just to stand on the side. When the PA came in though, he motioned me over. I told him, "I was told this was my place." He shakes his head and tells me to come over and stand next him and the patient. He was going to put in the central line to monitor venous pressure into the wrist. He showed me how to palpate the vein and how he inserts it. He talked to me bout how the monitors work, what measures what, and just talking to me before and during the surgery. After he made the first incision on the sternum, he calls me over and lets me stand and watch the surgery at the patient's head. The surgeon didn't talk much but she was nice enough to let me watch the surgery in her OR. She was the one who opened the chest cavity. After sawing through the sternum, the PA and surgeon just held onto either side of the rib cage and pulled it apart! Whoa! After the used a separator I was able to see the heart beating in its cavity. After they cut the membrane, I got to see a live human heart. I have never seen anything so cool in my life.  After the PA showed me how stitches the skin back together, I got to follow my patient up to his room. The surgery was long but so awesome. I got really lucky cuz normally they on't let students watch heart surgeries. I doubled lucked out cuz the PA who was in wasn't actually suppose to be working but came in when the orignal PA called out. At post-conference, everyone was super jealous I got in on a once-in-a-lifetime surgery. Even the nurses on the floor told me they never got to see an open heart surgery.

This year has just been full of new things and opportunities. I never would have thought I would see a surgery like that. I love what nursing has done for me. God has been so good to me, just incredibly faithful. That day is gonna be one I'll always remember. What a year.