A surgical experience

Ok, here is the first update on my 4 week final rotation. I am currently working on a very busy surgical ward. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do what is called a patient follow thru. My patient was admitted to the floor on friday afternoon after falling 15 feet off the roof of his barn and breaking his femur (huge bone from your thigh to your knee) in three different places! That takes talent people! Your femur is the strongest bone in your body and to break it in 3 different places is phenomenal! And painful! So when I came on for my 12 hour shift on Saturday morning I was given this man as one of my patients. I was to help prep him for surgery by administering all his pre op meds etc. Then I got to accompany him to the O.R. and watch his surgery. This was one of the neatest surgeries I have ever seen! But it had its draw backs. The surgery involved drilling a hole into the femur from hip joint to knee and inserting a metal rod that would then be screwed into place. All of this was done through a teeny tiny incision at the hip and the surgeon was guided by a machine called a fluoroscope which takes xrays and real time pictures of the leg while the surgeon is operating. This was great except for one thing! Because of this constant taking of xrays everyone in the O.R. had to wear 20lbs lead vests and collars to protect themselves from the xrays. This would have been fine for oh say 30 mins but the surgery took almost 3 hours!! I was so stinking hot and my feet killed after wearing almost 25lbs of lead strapped to my body from head to toe for 3 hours. Nonetheless the surgery was very interesting and then I was able to stay with my patient in the recovery room while he recovered from his anesthesia. Then to finish it all off I had him as one of my patients again today and will have him again tomorrow, so the continuity of care is really good.

So thus far my rotation has been very fun and my instructor is great! She assigned me to 3 patients today and I was sooo stinking busy running around like crazy trying to time all my patients pain meds and IV solutions correctly, and do dressing changes and help people walk to the bathroom and deal with vomit, but it was a very rewarding day. Especially when you leave and your instructor tells you that you have done a good job and she is impressed!