~LIFE IN THE OR~

OR 2
Plastics 101 Week One, Day 1
(Official training begins in plastic surgery).

Let's just say that the OR can be full of surprises! Some good, some not so good. Today we had a little of both. The not so good came when our patient decided to nearly bleed out on a routine surgery that was supposed to take and hour and a half and ended up taking three! It never ceases to amaze me how calm the doctors and nurses are when all ---- breaks loose. You would think that everyone should be in a state of panic. (Me being the new kid on the block, WAS!). They however, quietly go about their business asking for this or that and as quickly as the problem arose it is under control and things are back to "OR normal" again. Me, I'm standing in the corner looking like a deer in the head lights! I'm still not sure I am ever going to get used to some of the smells back there and the lights, those big overhead saucers, they were starting to feel just a bit too warm...After coaxing me from my safe haven, (the corner), with the assurance that nothing crazy or out of the ordinary was going to happen again, (because after all I am in training...I can only handle "ordinary" at this point in time), my wonderful OR team sat me on a chair and tried to make me laugh by telling me stories about even worse things that had happened in all the years that they have been doing this. Now you tell me, how does that make me feel any better about my decision to become a circulator? I know that some of you who read this are going to wonder if you should EVER have surgery...I promise, none of them told me about anyone dying...they were all just funny stories about nurses that had difficult times and sometime rather embarrassing moments adjusting to the operating room...I am sure they thought they would make me feel better. NOPE!

The good thing that happened today was that the nurse that came in to "break" me for lunch actually was "late" which meant ( I caught on the this part really fast), that he was the last one out for the day. That meant that I got to GO HOME!!! Today, I needed to go home. Tomorrow I hope to do better. I have an 8 hour surgery so maybe, just maybe, by the time that 8 hours is over I will have learned a little more. Even if it is just how to hang in there, for I fear this job is not going to go away...Heaven help me :()