HTFU

Funny, but true story that happened one evening in a surgery......................

Preface: we have an anesthesiologist at our facility. Dr. C. is our resident "muscle man"...he is a professional body builder..he's also a little arrogant, cocky, and curses like a sailor. I, on the other hand am meek, mild and rarely if ever, curse. I also am very modest and blush when embarrassed. That said, on with the story....

Scenario:
People in Operating room: patient (who thankfully was already "asleep" and unaware of situation, me, surgeon, scrub tech, retractor (person who holds body parts out of way so surgeon can work, Dr. C., anesthesia student, 3 nursing students, 2 xray staff, another scrub tech who came to help, and a nurse anesthestist who came to help Dr. C., so at least 13 staff in this room.

Situation: a very sick patient with a bad bowel, was being intubated. Due to her condition, it was feared that she may have aspirated upon intubation...meaning fluid went into her lungs which is a bad thing. Dr. C. was supervising the intubation and ordered a "flexible bronchoscope" so he could "look" into her lungs by going down her windpipe.

We don't have one of these in our area, so he barked at me to "call cardio pulmonary and tell them to bring us a flexible bronchoscope"... I called our front desk 'cause I didn't have the number and she called the other department.

Funny part of story: A few minutes later, she transferred a staff member from cardio-pulmonary to our room...she asked exactly what we wanted....I called across the room to Dr. C and relayed the question.....he asked who it was, I told him her name, and he said "Tell her we need a flexible bronchoscope and HTFU".

I being the compliant nurse that I am, repeated this exactly. As I said the HTFU, people started laughing and I looked up and Dr. C. started laughing and I realized what I had said. In case you haven't figured it out by now, HTFU stands for "Hurry The F*** UP". As I figured it out, the girl was still on the line and I profusely apologized. I naively thought that it was the name of a machine or something. The whole room was laughing hysterically!

This story has now circulated around our OR....now, anybody that was in that room and even others who have heard the story, will frequently mention to me, something about HTFU!

Footnote: the patient was fine and the surgery proceeded and was successful

Blood, Blood and More Blood

I guess maybe this should have been a Halloween Post! But, here goes.....
Disclaimer: If you have read any of this blog, you know that sometimes the things I talk about are rather graphic and sometimes gross...so, that being said....read on!

Sometimes, when I am Circulating as a Nurse on a case, I feel like I am in a bad horror flick like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something!

For example, some surgeons perform a procedure called a "Whipple". This is where several organs are removed from a person during the same surgery. It is usually performed in cases of cancer that has spread throughout the body and they are trying to halt it, or at least give the person more time to live.

The patient is cut from bottom of chest cavity down to top of pubic area and one by one, organs that can be lived without are removed: gallbladder, uterus, ovaries, appendix, parts of intestine and stomach, sometimes a kidney or lung. Each of these "specimens" is placed in a container and sent to the laboratory for testing. So at the end of the case, there may be 4, 5, 6 or more containers, each with a body part in them.

But, in the end, the patient is sewn up and sent to recovery hopefully to live longer.

Hopefully, I haven't grossed you out too bad!!

Weight Loss Surgery

At my hospital, we do not perform weight loss surgery such as lap band or bariatric surgery, but there are some hospitals in the area that do.

I have considered weight loss surgery, even though I guess I'm not that overweight, maybe 60 lbs, but a quick fix sounds inviting at times.

Check out weight loss surgery . They have all sorts of information on weight loss surgery.

Politics in the Workplace

I've always heard the old saying about not discussing at family gatherings the topics of Religion or Politics because there will always be differences. Well, they should include the "Workplace" among the places.

Let me give you an example of my workplace. I work in a "closed department" which basically means no one is allowed in the area except Operating Room staff and the patients who we transport to our area for surgery. Our staff, including surgeons, is predominantly Caucasion, with maybe 25% African American and a few of Latino descent. Now as far as Democrat or Republican, it seems to be about 50/50, but most surgeons seem to be primarily Republican.

With all that said, most people who work in the OR are, shall we say, "outspoken" and will voice their opinion on everything and argue, usually in a professional way, if you think differently than they do. This is not usually a problem, unless this discussion takes place during a surgery, where you are not able to just "walk away". For example, a particular surgeon was coming to a close on the surgery, and all of a sudden, the surgeon starts blasting Obama and saying all kinds about his policies and turns to his scrub tech and says, "don't you think so?"....you guessed it....this particular scrub tech just happens to be an Obama supporter.

Being an Obama supporter is not the problem...the problem is that she has stated in the past that the only reason that she is voting for him is because he is supposedly African American. If she had other valid, rational reasons about how his policies will help America and such, it would be different for her, but she doesn't. Now, she just smirks under her surgical mask and wisely says, "No comment" and usually the conversation is directed elsewhere.

Maybe that's what we should all say when asked in a confrontational way about Religion or Politics....just politely say, "No comment." and leave it at that.