16 hours and counting...
In case of the 16 hours, it is the number of hours I have currently been awake. Yes, I am not kidding. I arose at 4:00 this morning to prepare for a 1-hour ride to Lexington for the start of a new clinical rotation!!!!!! Today's venue: "Big Jo" in the...pre-op, OR, post-op and ICU. Yeah, I saw it ALL today!
The morning started around 6:00. I was introduced to my patient. She was a very nice lady, and her daughter graduated from Berea! Yay! We got around to talking when the charge nurse told me I was getting changed patients. Next patient, another very nice lady. Pre-op testing took a while...answering lots of questions, lots of exams, vital signs and everything. It was hard at one point for me to keep up; I basically spent the whole day observing. However, seeing the whole perioperative process was incredibly cool beans!!! Then, around 7:20 this morning, we moved to the OR. The procedure? If I remember correctly....oh buger...a robotic laprascopic assisted hysterectomy. I was thinking, well shoot, I didn't even know you could DO THAT laprascopically. Ok...in case you don't know what that means, it means that the surgery is done without minimal cutting open of the abdomen and lots of robotic arms and cameras are used. They're doing that knowadays for gallbladders and appendices...except if the appendix is hot and about to burst!
So now we're in the OR....and it's sooooooooooooooooooooo cold!!!!!!!!! I swear I think they were trying to freeze us to death, but we have to take into consideration several circumstances. Anyway, the procedure was going on smoothly (and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), but then there were some problems with high...very high blood pressure (200+ systolic...ok, for med illiterate people, the systolic number is the top number on a BP reading. 200+ systolic in any circumstance is NOT good!). It got a little bit scary, but I realized that things like this in the OR do happen. The procedure itself lasted about 2 hours and then we moved onto the postanesthesia care unit (PACU for short). Then, MORE scary situations, but I won't go into details, but let's just say it was pretty scary. And I must say sometimes anesthesia can be a dirty buger! Still, problems w/ BP were going on, but after a while things resolved themselves. I remember at one point I was sitting at the bedside, watching the vitals monitor, watching the fluctuating BP and holding my breath. Then, it hit me; THIS is what nursing is about. Not only realizing there is a serious problem, but caring and being genuinely concerned. The patient was then transferred to the ICU after about an hour in the PACU, and that's when I left the floor.
Overall, a pretty crazy first day back in the saddle that is clinicals. And then on Thursday I get to do it all over again in psych! Woo-wee. Here we go again!
The morning started around 6:00. I was introduced to my patient. She was a very nice lady, and her daughter graduated from Berea! Yay! We got around to talking when the charge nurse told me I was getting changed patients. Next patient, another very nice lady. Pre-op testing took a while...answering lots of questions, lots of exams, vital signs and everything. It was hard at one point for me to keep up; I basically spent the whole day observing. However, seeing the whole perioperative process was incredibly cool beans!!! Then, around 7:20 this morning, we moved to the OR. The procedure? If I remember correctly....oh buger...a robotic laprascopic assisted hysterectomy. I was thinking, well shoot, I didn't even know you could DO THAT laprascopically. Ok...in case you don't know what that means, it means that the surgery is done without minimal cutting open of the abdomen and lots of robotic arms and cameras are used. They're doing that knowadays for gallbladders and appendices...except if the appendix is hot and about to burst!
So now we're in the OR....and it's sooooooooooooooooooooo cold!!!!!!!!! I swear I think they were trying to freeze us to death, but we have to take into consideration several circumstances. Anyway, the procedure was going on smoothly (and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), but then there were some problems with high...very high blood pressure (200+ systolic...ok, for med illiterate people, the systolic number is the top number on a BP reading. 200+ systolic in any circumstance is NOT good!). It got a little bit scary, but I realized that things like this in the OR do happen. The procedure itself lasted about 2 hours and then we moved onto the postanesthesia care unit (PACU for short). Then, MORE scary situations, but I won't go into details, but let's just say it was pretty scary. And I must say sometimes anesthesia can be a dirty buger! Still, problems w/ BP were going on, but after a while things resolved themselves. I remember at one point I was sitting at the bedside, watching the vitals monitor, watching the fluctuating BP and holding my breath. Then, it hit me; THIS is what nursing is about. Not only realizing there is a serious problem, but caring and being genuinely concerned. The patient was then transferred to the ICU after about an hour in the PACU, and that's when I left the floor.
Overall, a pretty crazy first day back in the saddle that is clinicals. And then on Thursday I get to do it all over again in psych! Woo-wee. Here we go again!
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