Day in the OR 2-28-09
Reflections from my day in the OR.
The day started with the staff meeting. Apparently there are some issues between the techs and nurses. They both felt the other party should be doing more and there was an almost argument. It was kind of interesting seeing that dynamic, I know it exists in almost every workplace, but I hadn’t seen any disagreements really between hospital staff before. But when it came to the OR, the nurses and techs that I saw interact didn’t show any hostility, they got it out during the meeting and then just got to work.
The first surgery of the day that I saw was a hernia repair. The patient didn’t speak any English and the OR nurse didn’t find this out until just out side the OR when she tried to do her interview, so they went out to the front desk and had the son come in and act as a translator so that the nurse could do her interview. The surgery went with out incident, I didn’t get to see a whole, lot but being my first time in the OR I was very busy watching how the team worked together, the tech, the nurse, the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. I was very excited about being in the OR and seeing all this and I’m ashamed to admit but I started to feel kinda dizzy while they were closing up so I headed back to the staff lounge. I had a bit of an incident I blacked out, I didn’t loose consciousness but my vision went black (it’s happened to me before) I just took some deep breathes and it was ok. I think in my excitement I just wasn’t breathing very deep I was concentrating on watching and didn’t really think about myself too much, the rest of the day I just made sure to take some deep breaths every now and then and I didn’t have any more dizziness the rest of the day.
The next surgery was a laparoscopic gallbladder removal, and they injected some dye to see if there were any stones that needed to be taken out but there were no stones other than inside the gallbladder. I was surprised at how big the gallbladder is, with all the fluid they took out and the gallbladder itself. The nurse let me inspect and play with the gallbladder and feel the stones inside. The laparoscopic was cool because there was so much to see with the big monitors.
Then I joined a surgery in progress with Suzanne, the surgeon was using the robot to remove a prostate, it was really neat to watch them reattach the bladder and take the very enlarged prostate out. After that Suzanne and I headed out to lunch together. I made sure to get back to the OR by the time the next surgery was starting.
The cheilectomy was interesting, I could see quite a bit, and the patient was minimally sedated so that incubation wasn’t necessary. They used a tourniquet and local anesthetics. But several times during the surgery she’d start to move her leg, and arms and started to try to sit up, so the anesthesiologist gave her more meds and then incubated her almost at the end of the surgery. The doctor said that it probably wasn’t from any discomfort of the surgery, but from discomfort from the tight tourniquet.
Then the last surgery of the day the surgeons fused C5 and C6 with a donor bone, there wasn’t much to see, but at one point one of the surgeons, let me step up on the stool right next to the patient and look down to the dura matter right before they put the donor bone in, it was quite amazing. I’m glad I stayed for that site! The surgeon used subcuticular stiches to close up the incision and his stitching was so neat it looked like a papercut on his throat. Though most of the surgery was boring from my point of view the nurse was very friendly and talked to me about the differences between the scrubed in assistant (tech or nurse) and the nurse who runs the operating room, it was a neat glimpse at the duties that the nurse holds.
The day started with the staff meeting. Apparently there are some issues between the techs and nurses. They both felt the other party should be doing more and there was an almost argument. It was kind of interesting seeing that dynamic, I know it exists in almost every workplace, but I hadn’t seen any disagreements really between hospital staff before. But when it came to the OR, the nurses and techs that I saw interact didn’t show any hostility, they got it out during the meeting and then just got to work.
The first surgery of the day that I saw was a hernia repair. The patient didn’t speak any English and the OR nurse didn’t find this out until just out side the OR when she tried to do her interview, so they went out to the front desk and had the son come in and act as a translator so that the nurse could do her interview. The surgery went with out incident, I didn’t get to see a whole, lot but being my first time in the OR I was very busy watching how the team worked together, the tech, the nurse, the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. I was very excited about being in the OR and seeing all this and I’m ashamed to admit but I started to feel kinda dizzy while they were closing up so I headed back to the staff lounge. I had a bit of an incident I blacked out, I didn’t loose consciousness but my vision went black (it’s happened to me before) I just took some deep breathes and it was ok. I think in my excitement I just wasn’t breathing very deep I was concentrating on watching and didn’t really think about myself too much, the rest of the day I just made sure to take some deep breaths every now and then and I didn’t have any more dizziness the rest of the day.
The next surgery was a laparoscopic gallbladder removal, and they injected some dye to see if there were any stones that needed to be taken out but there were no stones other than inside the gallbladder. I was surprised at how big the gallbladder is, with all the fluid they took out and the gallbladder itself. The nurse let me inspect and play with the gallbladder and feel the stones inside. The laparoscopic was cool because there was so much to see with the big monitors.
Then I joined a surgery in progress with Suzanne, the surgeon was using the robot to remove a prostate, it was really neat to watch them reattach the bladder and take the very enlarged prostate out. After that Suzanne and I headed out to lunch together. I made sure to get back to the OR by the time the next surgery was starting.
The cheilectomy was interesting, I could see quite a bit, and the patient was minimally sedated so that incubation wasn’t necessary. They used a tourniquet and local anesthetics. But several times during the surgery she’d start to move her leg, and arms and started to try to sit up, so the anesthesiologist gave her more meds and then incubated her almost at the end of the surgery. The doctor said that it probably wasn’t from any discomfort of the surgery, but from discomfort from the tight tourniquet.
Then the last surgery of the day the surgeons fused C5 and C6 with a donor bone, there wasn’t much to see, but at one point one of the surgeons, let me step up on the stool right next to the patient and look down to the dura matter right before they put the donor bone in, it was quite amazing. I’m glad I stayed for that site! The surgeon used subcuticular stiches to close up the incision and his stitching was so neat it looked like a papercut on his throat. Though most of the surgery was boring from my point of view the nurse was very friendly and talked to me about the differences between the scrubed in assistant (tech or nurse) and the nurse who runs the operating room, it was a neat glimpse at the duties that the nurse holds.