Finally sterile!

Operation start 10:05AM

I call Dr.N to see if I should come to the operation room yet and the operation nurse answers the phone. She informs me that it is about to begin and that if I want to see something I should probably hurry up. So I jog to the dressing rooms basically. I arrive in room 1 and introduce myself. The nurse sticks me in the corner and tells me to wait until the patient is cleaned and then she would tell me where I could stand. At this point I am thinking "crap, she doesn't know that I am supposed to be sterile for this operation and Dr.N is in the room and isn't saying anything". Instantly my mood was down. I had met Dr.N earlier in the day and asked when I should come to the operation and already got the feeling that he wasn't having the best day ever. He seemed a little bugged.

Dr.N continued to clean the patient and then got all sterile himself. My mind keeps thinking "crap, crap, crap, he forgot! Should I say something? No, he seems a little annoyed with life at the moment." Then the assistant Dr. gets paged and Dr.N informs the operation nurse that as soon as he arrives, I should wash up with him! Yay, he didn't forget!

Finally Dr.W arrived and took me to the washing room. He showed me how to wash my hands, act in the operation room and then took me to get my sterile clothes put on. Then I got to stand next to him (with the patient's arm between us) at the table. The position was a bit stupid because I couldn't see all to much at first. It has been the same with every operation, within the first 15 minutes I get a really weird feeling, it is not a problem with blood, blood doesn't bother me, but rather the standing (although its only 15 minutes to begin with), the bright lights and who the heck knows what else. My vision went black on the sides and I just concentrated not to pass out and at the same time not let anyone notice what was going on with me. I concentrated on my breathing and making it look like I was attentively following what they were doing. Once the black was gone my vision was in super over exposure. The operation area was a big bright white area, I looked to the window and instead of seeing the landscape I saw a big white bright area. My eyes didn't focus right, even after opening and closing them. Then I saw the pattern of my iris in my vision field. I am telling you, it was totally crazy. As if someone had totally over exposed my vision. I really concentrated on my breathing and again not letting anyone notice what was going on. Thankfully, after about 10 minutes it was over. Then I became a crazy sensation of thirst and I was sweating like crazy. I really could have killed for about a gallon of water at that moment. That feeling was thankfully over after about 3 minutes. Then came the hunger for about 2 minutes and then, as if nothing had ever happened, it was all over and I was absolutely fine!?! Crazy I tell you! Below is an example of what I kind of was seeing.

Normal Vision

Then this

Then this! But almost even more intense!

I got to hold a few clamps, cut some string from the stitches made and had to name a few structures. Like I said, Dr.N wasn't having his best day but thankfully Dr.W explained a lot and we had our fun. He started speaking pigeon English for fun and I answered in English to see what he would say. We spent the next 15 minutes speaking English with one another and German with the others....it was pretty funny. I was situated on his side of the table, so that I could assist him in what he was doing and otherwise hold clamps and hooks for both of them. It was a fun (minus the weird senstations at the beginning) and interesting operation and it was nice to be there sterile and be able to help a bit.

After 4.5 hours we were done and I headed back to my stuff to get changed and then catch Grandma for a ride home.

I have three days left and then it is off to Gö again! I still have to fit in a 2-4 hour shadowing of a doctor for my psychology class. I will have to discuss it with the nurses tomorrow. I will have to write the report on my way back to Gö/ in Gö before my vacation because the teacher wants it 3 weeks in advance of our 1-week class and I won't have the opportunity to send it to him within the month of September so I really need to get on it.

I made about 40 cupcakes with my best friend for the nurses and doctors yesterday and brought them to work today. I won't have time in the next 3 days to do so, so I took them with me today.

3 more days!

V