On to the theatres! This would be our first day of cases, and my first day scrubbing--ever! I would be stationed in Dr. Stephen Parker's room along with my roommate and our fearless PA, Senthilkumar (Senthil) Radhakrishnan. Augusta Bartis and Jenny Parker (Steve's wife) would also scrub with me, and Augusta's mother, Jean, was our "circulating nurse." I doubt anyone will ever know just how much work Jean Bartis did behind the scenes in preparation for this trip--a true saint.
Our three cases for the day were all hydrocephalus patients--all very young--around 6-7 month-olds. The first two needed shunts, and the third would receive an "EVD" or an external ventricular drain to relieve the intracranial pressure caused by excess cerebrospinal fluid. I ran the table on the first two, and was "first-assist" on the third (taking Senthil's place on this one--he was needed in another room). This first assistant helps the surgeon by suctioning the wound, cauterizing bleeders with the bovie--or "hot knife"--and bayonette instruments, holding retractors, helping with sutures while closing, applying dressings (xeroform, gauze, op-sites), etc.
The pediatric theatre had no air-conditioning, but the doctors were fine with this because ped's rooms are supposed to be hot. Patients lose a lot of body heat via the open wound during surgery. Warm blankets fed by a heater can help, but with the little kids, you really need to be careful because of their tendency to lose body heat faster than adults--hence the need to "keep the heat on." I didn't realize how much of a difference it made to be scrubbed in a room like that with all the extra gowns, gloves, etc.--WOW. I had sweat pouring down my face, back, and legs...and there's nothing you can do about it for hours! You can't scratch your face without contaminating yourself! Talk about a new-found respect for our scrub nurses!
We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 that morning and didn't leave until about 10:30 that night (others--PACU nurses, ICU nurses--had to stay even later), and having missed dinner, we were all pretty beat.
Our three cases for the day were all hydrocephalus patients--all very young--around 6-7 month-olds. The first two needed shunts, and the third would receive an "EVD" or an external ventricular drain to relieve the intracranial pressure caused by excess cerebrospinal fluid. I ran the table on the first two, and was "first-assist" on the third (taking Senthil's place on this one--he was needed in another room). This first assistant helps the surgeon by suctioning the wound, cauterizing bleeders with the bovie--or "hot knife"--and bayonette instruments, holding retractors, helping with sutures while closing, applying dressings (xeroform, gauze, op-sites), etc.
The pediatric theatre had no air-conditioning, but the doctors were fine with this because ped's rooms are supposed to be hot. Patients lose a lot of body heat via the open wound during surgery. Warm blankets fed by a heater can help, but with the little kids, you really need to be careful because of their tendency to lose body heat faster than adults--hence the need to "keep the heat on." I didn't realize how much of a difference it made to be scrubbed in a room like that with all the extra gowns, gloves, etc.--WOW. I had sweat pouring down my face, back, and legs...and there's nothing you can do about it for hours! You can't scratch your face without contaminating yourself! Talk about a new-found respect for our scrub nurses!We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 that morning and didn't leave until about 10:30 that night (others--PACU nurses, ICU nurses--had to stay even later), and having missed dinner, we were all pretty beat.
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