status/post 2 days of Ortho

So the past 2 days have been sort of rough. I was, like every other 3rd year, thrown into situations with very little guidance. You learn to highly appreciate any helping hands (like nurses and scrub techs); they are GOLD. And I love them.

These 2 days have seemed like 5. Yesterday I went to the O.R.---not knowing how exactly to scrub in or wear my surgical mask (I ended up paging a nurse, Kaye, who'd taught us to scrub in and had given us her pager for this exact moment, and she informed me in the nicest way possible, "Oh you need to put the colored part on the outside dear." Oh and I was told I paged from a phone that the CSA's would KILL me if they saw me do it. Of course, I don't know what a CSA is). The first surgery I basically shadowed and couldn't see much. But that's where I met Dale, a nurse who is just the nicest most helpful lady ever. My resident tried to get this scrub tech named Chris to teach me how to scrub in effectively---he literally looked me over, a once-over (made more apparent because all I can see is his eyes with his mask on), and said "Isn't Kaye supposed to teach them first?" And I was like "Oh, she did!" But they teach us stuff and we do it once and then don't do it for over a week and of course forget it. In the end, I had to page Kaye myself. That was around the time I had been ditched by both resident and attending and didn't know how to use the big chart.

Kaye set me up, and from there it was goooood times. She led me back to my resident, Brian, who I still don't know if he hates me or not because third years are basically ignored as a rule. HOWEVER, he is cool in my book because he helped me not only scrub in, but also said "so watch me drill this in, because you're doing the next one." Yep. I drilled a hole into a lady's humerus, then he helped me screw a screw into it! WHAT. Then he had me suture a bit too! That was the BEST part of the day. Especially because John was there. John is a scrub tech who gives me shit for mentioning Pediatrics as a career interest. But the jovial kind of giving-you-shit that makes you feel better because someone has actually talked to you, and it wasn't to say "hold this retractor." Plus he is the most able-to-multitask man I've ever met in my life. Like I backed into the arm of the table AFTER THE ATTENDING SAID "Ok come around but don't back into the arm of the table." Embarassment up the yin yang. "Now you're contaminated!" So John was assisting in the attending's sawing off a femoral head AND regowning and regloving me.

Ok so when you meet people in the O.R., you only see their eyes. Everyone is wearing a mask---sometimes even a big 'ol fancy hood thing that shoots air into it so that you can breathe (I got to wear one of those too. Like the skeleton of a bike helmet plus a drape/hood around it). So when I met Dale and John I only met their friendly blue eyes. John I actually saw and instantly decided that if he was 15 years younger and not married-with-children I'd date him immediately. And Dale I saw in the hallway after about 3 surgeries and I almost didn't know who she was! Of course I stick out like a sore thumb, so I wasn't surprised when John later pulled me aside and into a hug and said "You know I'm just giving you a hard time, right? You do what your heart tells you."

At one point I was pretty low cuz I'd lost both resident and attending. Then I was taught how to page Brian and was free to go. But I forgot to mention that all I'd eaten was a granola bar I stuffed in my mouth at 7 after morning conference, and went til about 3:00 that way. Brian asked if I had any basic questions and I said "yes...do you eat?" And he laughed and said "yeah, I meant to send you for lunch but things got crazy. Just make sure you go next time."

After a mandatory lecture, Day 1 was done. Aside from moaning and wailing with Genevieve. This blog shall have a lag because I desperately need to copy things before this library closes. Sadly, Day 2 was a downer. But here's to Day 3!