tka

i saw a knee surgery last thursday. i dont know why it just occured to me that i havent written about it.
i arrive to toledo hospital for my OR observation day for my medsurg clinical. i got there about 7 right when things are getting started. i actually had about 15 minutes before i had to be there....luckily. my paper said to go to the south visitor elevator...i found the elevators i believed her the south ones, took them to the second floor...i took the left, then the immediate right...and i was looking over a balcony and not at two double blue doors. panick sets in as a i realize i am so lost. i somehow entered the childrens hospital instead of the main hospital OR....i went back the way i came, found a security guard...who drew a map for me and directed me to where i needed to go...bless his heart.
i found the blue double doors, i went through them to the OR world.
i walked up, in my white scrubs in a world of green scrubs, to the nurses station...there were about 10 people huddle around it looking at schedules, getting barked out orders, loud and absolutely crazy...after 3 minutes i decided i was at the wrong station..and started to go further down the hallway until a large sign said "DO NOT ENTER IN STREET CLOTHES, PROPER ATTIRE ONLY"....i stopped in my tracks, i looked down.....not wearing street clothes, but i remember hearing that i needed to change and what if im not supposed to go back there , i already stick out like a sore thumb so i cant act like im just blending in.....so i make the decision to go back to the crazy nurses station which is actually like an over populated zoo exhibit....i muster up all the courage i have and say "excuse me"....no one pays attention....a little louder this time "EXCUSE ME, IM LOOKING FOR THE RN EDUCATOR".....a women on the phone, with a hairnet on that has a separated compartment for her banana bangs looks at me and says "yah, me too". I realize this is all im going to get. Banana bang lady tells me to go change. I look at her dumbstruck, where am i supposed to go, where are the clothes, what the hell am i even doing here?
she says to take a door on the right, go up the stairs, all the way down the hallway and theres the womens room.....so, i go....pass the door...then turn around and go back...find the door...take it...go up the stairs....down a long hallway....and i successfully find the locker room....there are scrubs right when i walk in ...all mixed sizes, i had to dig through them to find a size that wasnt XS or XXXXL ......L top, M bottom...and im changed......i head back to where i came from...now im just one of them at teh nurses station...the sea of green loud people. with a hairnets. but now the nurse educator has arrived....and shes nice, not like banana bangs...she asks me where im from and my name is, obviously had no idea who was going to be there today because she called me heather at first, because thats who was coming in the afternoon. I told her i am there till 11 am. So she decides a TKA would be good for me to see. She takes me through hallways of people, carts, beds, running, commotion...to the OR room ill be in. gives me shoe covers, a mask, and eye shields in case, you know, blood splashes. to puts me in a corner in the OR room...and leaves me. I stand there....moving periodically when someone needs to get into the cabinent behind me.and i observe.
the anesthesiologist is southern. he teaches me two things that the number 1 RESTRICTIVE lung disease is obesity...and the arterial O2 is 65 when the venous is 90. the surgeons assistants are okay. but the surgeon. a dick. he makes sexual jokes about everyone including me...calling one of the assistants a tripod. and starts to lift the obese woman's leg and makes comments like "how much do you think this weighs"
the surgery itself was cool. in between the jokes of "dont pass out now!" ...and "are you okay?" or "are you pregnant?? are you looking to get pregnant because he'll help yo out"....i liked the blood, and seeing the bones, and muscle in person. the woman just snores away. honestly though, as cool as it was to see, i was bored after 5 minutes. and here is what i learned about surgical nursing. 1) the circulator nurse basically sits on her ass. 2) the scrub nurse works her ass off and getrs bitched at by the surgeon.

needless to say, surgery is only fun if you are a surgeon.

i followed the patient to recovery where i met the nicest nurse i have ever mat in PACU. she was soooo helpful and nice and sweet and very much the nurse i would want to be. the PACU was interesting, its funny how people are on anesthesia, but its also dangerous with some. i think it would be fun to work there....definitely not a snooze fest.
after that it was 11 and with out any idea how to find the RN educater or Banana bangs...i just found my back back to my things, changed (WITH A MAN, in the dressing room for some unknown reason), and went about my way...

on the way out a women asked me how to get to the south elevators...i laughed....and told her i had no idea, im just a student and i dont know.....i love that i can use that excuse still.