What Are The Odds?

So, I recently began taking some voluntary call. I haven't been required to, but need some extra money.

The first time I got called in for an emergency surgery was at 12:30 a.m. and then a week later at 11:30 p.m. both for about 3 hours. The funny thing was, both times there was the same scrub tech, the same orderly, the same anesthesiologist and me, the circulator. That was pretty weird!

So we decided that the four of us don't need to be on call all at the same time again!

I had a DaVinci Robotic Hysterectomy!

Well, I'm gonna give this another go...........!!!! Lots of stuff has happened since I was last on here, most importantly, I had my own surgery! About 6 months ago I had a Da Vinci Robotic Hysterectomy and came through with flying colors. Future posts will catch you up and give more details about that wonderful surgery. Hope to speak to y'all soon!

More Common Surgical Procedure Abbreviations

In one of my earlier posts, Common Surgical Procedure Abbreviations I referenced a few commonly used surgical procedure abbreviations.

Now....da da dah.....here are a few more!

LEEP: Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure

FESS: Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery

CABG: Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

D and C: Dilatation and Currettage

ORIF: Open Reduction Internal Fixation

T and A: get your mind out of the gutter!! This stands for Tonsils and Adenoids

So there you go....a few more little abbreviations for common surgical procedures.

Hemorrhoid Surgery

When my brother died back in January, I asked one of my aunts that were at the wake where my cousin (her son) was. Now remember, I live in a Southern city, so my aunt in her “southern drawl” said, “Oh, he’s got the hemorrhoids so bad he couldn’t come. In fact, he’s having surgery tomorrow for them.” At that moment, even through my grief, I had to laugh inside thinking my cousin would be mortified if he knew his mom was out in public discussing his, ummm, delicate situation.

What exactly is a hemorrhoid? According to medlineplus.gov, “Hemorrhoids are swollen, inflamed veins around the anus or lower rectum. They are either inside the anus or under the skin around the anus. They often result from straining to have a bowel movement. Other factors include pregnancy, aging and chronic constipation or diarrhea.
Hemorrhoids are very common in both men and women. About half of all people have hemorrhoids by age 50. The most common symptom of hemorrhoids inside the anus is bright red blood covering the stool, on toilet paper or in the toilet bowl. Symptoms usually go away within a few days.”

I do not personally have hemorrhoids, so I don’t know how they feel, but from what I hear, they can be quite bothersome. As a surgical nurse, I have seen hemorrhoid surgery, though, and believe me, it is not a pretty site. A patient has to be in the prone (on stomach) position, with their bottom exposed. The buttocks usually have to be separated with some kind of tape to hold them apart so the surgeon can get to the area without fighting through fleshy butts! Sometimes, the surgeon just pushes them back in, or other times they actually cut off the offending item, sew it up, and put a dressing on.

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Or a Baseball Bat

Our Recovery Room is one huge room with privacy curtains with separate monitors to accomodate about 20 patients arriving from surgery.

My patient that we had just wheeled out was waking up from anesthesia, the patient behind the curtain next to him was making growling noises as he was waking up. The nurse of the growling patient, in an effort to help his apparent pain tried to get him to reposition himself. As he moaned and growled, the nurse said, "Sir, what you need is some pain medicine...."

and my patient, an apparent jokester even when not fully conscious, mumbled through his oxygen mask, "or a baseball bat"...!!!

Now, whether my patient was having empathy pains and felt like he himself needed a baseball bat, or that his fellow patient needed one so he would be quiet, I'm not sure...but we all got a good laugh!

Scared of the Dark

I don't know about you, but I have always had a fear of the dark.....if I'm in a dark room or outside in the dark, I have to hold my breath and walk very quickly, praying the whole time until I get to a light source! Even though I know God is with me, there's just something eerie about the dark.

The same goes for a dark operating room. In the evening, when most surgeries are over, part of my duty is to restock rooms with supplies. All the rooms have 2 entrances and most of the rooms have a light switch on both sides of the room. But there are a couple that don't. If I go into one of the rooms with just one light switch, I try to enter from the side with it....but if I come from the other side, I have to leave the door propped open or go around because it freaks me out....especially since I know that at least one person has died on the table in each of these rooms.

I hope to explore further the "eerie unknown" and "freakish occurrences" that have occurred in our operating rooms and area in future posts.

Michael Jackson's Death Ruled a Homicide

Yes, I know I promised in my last post that I would be back much sooner than this, but anyway, here I am!!

As you know, I work in surgery as a nurse. I see Diprovan, aka Propofol everyday when we put patients "to sleep" for their surgery. Some even jokingly call the white medicine, "milk of amnesia" because of its likeness in color and texture to "milk of magnesia".

That is in the surgical/hospital setting. As has been all over the news, this powerful medication is not meant for the home setting.

No matter what your views on M.J., it's still sad that this was his demise. I guess if there is any comfort, he died in his sleep....

I'm Back, Hopefully, with some sad news

I know it's been a really long time since I posted, but as usual, a lot of stuff going on.....the main thing being the sudden death of my oldest brother toward the end of January.

According to the coroner, he died of complications of hypertension, COPD and diabetes....we suspect he either had a stroke or heart attack. He was only 55.

He was not in the best of health, and did not take great care of himself, plus he drank too much alcohol and smoked. He lived alone and died at home.

I've been having to go through his stuff because I and my sister are his only close relatives and she had to go back to her home in another state, so it has been occupying a lot of my time, plus I'm still working full time as an OR nurse.

Moral of this sad story: If you have a drinking problem, get help.... If you smoke, find a way to stop.... If you have diabetes, try to eat right, exercise and take medicine as prescribed.... If you have hypertension (high blood pressure), take your medicine every day.... If you have COPD, follow your physician's instructions.

Another lesson learned from this is to always make sure you have your important papers in a safe place and let someone know where they are.

Anyway, I hope to get back to blogging again.

Thanks for continuing to visit!

Get Some Happy Teeth

When you work in surgery, you can’t help but notice people’s teeth. Obviously, you see them a little while conversing with the patient, but then there’s the intubation. When a breathing tube is inserted after a patient is “out” on the operating table, the mouth is opened by the anesthesia personnel, the teeth are parted and the breathing tube is inserted.

It is amazing the condition of some of the patients’ teeth…..they range anywhere from being yellow, decayed, or just missing. Many patients, and most other people also, could benefit from visiting www.smilewarehouse.com . This company has all kinds of dental products at reasonable prices. Some of the products include: toothbrushes, toothpaste, oral irrigators, mouthrinses and teeth whitening products.

If you’re in need of a dental product, this company has everything you need.

Get this, they even have pet products such as dog toothbrush .

One cool product they carry is oral b triumph 9950 .

So if you are in the market for some cool teeth care products, head on over to this website. Oh, I forgot, they also carry a line of spa products including candles, body lotions and diffusers.

O.K. now you can hop on over there and make your teeth and gums happy!

Delay in the Discogram

well fooey!!!!

The discogram was scheduled for this past Wednesday. Because we are having financial problems, they told us the whole balance would have to be paid before the procedure...then we got there and they said we only needed to pay the $20 copay, then, they called us to a window and said No, cannot do it without balance being taken care of....we told them we had previously had this worked out....they had to call someone.....long story short, we got home, called who we had previously worked it out with and they said everything was fine....called back the facility and they said everything was fine and we could reschedule!

Dangit, why couldn't they just figure this out while we were there.....anyway after this big fat hassle, the discogram is again scheduled for this coming up Tuesday.....pray there are no glitches because we really need to get this done before the end of the year since we have already met the deductible for this year!