knees, bums and gall bladders - from the inside out!

okay, okay! you're all wanting to hear my OR stories, aren't you? well, it was one pretty rad day. yes, it was rad. first off, a total knee replacement. they're not joking when they say that there's sawing and hammering and drilling. not joking whatsoever. after the knee was opened and the knee cap was removed, they bent the leg up at the knee. oh wait... do you want to hear all the gory details?? well, i'll make it tame and if you want to hear more, you'll have to call me. but this part was neat. i was sitting/standing at the foot of the patient, decked out in my meredith-grey scrubs, mask, hairnet, gown (because i was cold), and even shoe covers (i didn't want blood on my lovely white shoes!). so they bent the knee, but now there was no knee cap in the way, and so i'm looking at the bottom end of this guy's femur pointing straight at me. not a sight i've ever seen before. okay, i wasn't going to go into detail... right.... so then they drill WAY down deep into the length of the bones and saw off the ends of the bones, add some cement and hammer on the prosthesis and drill on the other parts of the prosthesis, and that was that - in a nut shell. man, did that guy have a SHINY new knee!!

after that, i watched a laparoscopic hernia repair. so, 3 small 'stab wounds' into the abdomen, and they fixed his hernia by stitching in a piece of mesh and stapling it all up. I sat by and watched it all the the big flat screen that the surgeon used to visualize the patient's insides.

then i watched a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal). very neat! on the screen, i figured out what was the liver (it was dark red, just like in all the pictures), the pink bowels, and the mushy yellow fat! once again, only 3 holes, and they cut if off, cauterized everything and pulled out the gall bladder one of the holes. they inflate the patient's abdomen with air so that you can actually see inside, so afterwards the patient deflated and it looked and sounded hilarious!

then 2 gastroscopies [stomach+scope]. i won't describe the gagging and retching that came from these guys. i helped by holding a patient's hand so that he wouldn't pull out the scope.
and then i saw 2 colonoscopies [colon+scope]. yes, up the bum. the colon looks very neat! it was empty.

anyways, i have to say that the staff were amazing. every theatre i went into, they were all [docs and nurses] excited to have a nursing student. "oh come sit over here! you can see better here!" "come right up here by her head and i'll show you how we intubate a patient." "come closer! you can see where the colonoscopy is... see? his abdomen is glowing red there" [it looked like when you put a flashlight on in your mouth.... come on, don't tell me you've never done that]. ya, so it was pretty cool. i don't know if i'd really want to be an OR nurse. i think i'd miss the patient-interaction.
but, as we know, i love anatomy, and i got to see it today, in real, from the inside out.