Today, I was reminded that- just like in life, perspective is EVERYTHING.
I found myself once again hanging out with my anesthesiologist mentor in the OR on this fine Thursday. On the docket today, a resection of a breast tumor, a thyroidectomy, and a hysteroscopy with dilitation and curratage. I started a couple of IVs got another intubation, and was reviewing the pharmacology of all of those agents used to keep you from saying "ouch" when a surgeon starts-a-cutting on you. I was having a pretty good day.
The same could not be said of a poor OB/GYN resident.
I am not sure how her day was going but I know for sure it took a marked turn for the worse somewhere around 2:30 this afternoon. You see- at 2:30 this afternoon, a perfect storm of conditions converged. The stars aligned just-so, and her day was about to go south.
The positioning of a patient in the lithotomy position during a gynecological procedure, the propensity for operative anesthesia to relax the body-I mean, REALLY relax the body, the lack of requiring a bowel-prep before such a procedure, and of course the ever-present, gravity- all conspired to ruin our young resident's afternoon.
If you don't already see where this is headed, I'll spare you the suspense. The patient spontaneously evacuated her bowels while under anesthesia. All over the floor. Right where residents (and eager medical students) happen to stand during hysteroscopies. Yum!
It was at this precise moment that I realized: if this had been a few months ago, it would have been my shoes that were under the unrelenting fecal assault, my olfactory bulb sending distress calls to my brain, my gag reflex being challenged, and my face that would be screwed up in a contorted look of pain- but this was not a few months ago. It was today. And today, I was safely out of harm's way. I wasn't staring down the business end of an angry colon. Today I was with anesthesia, where life is good.
It is the little victory that is the most savored!
No longer an intern (The Salt Lake Tribune, 7/6/13)
10 years ago
3 Comments:
Silicon based life forms don't crap all over their healers .... Somehow I don't think I'll be missing the clinical arena any time soon ..... IT 100% -- clinical 0% -- is the right balance for me !!!
I capped my OB/Gyn rotation today with 3 D&Cs and 1 vaginal hysterectomy....and damn glad that didn't happen to me. I might have thrown my hands in the air and said, "I'm through with this shit....literally" and walked out.
VJ
I was on call one night with a second year resident and one attending. Unfortunately, four women decided to go into labor all at the same time. I was stuck with the one who had just received a Fleet enema.
I'm not sure what was worse, the smell that took over the entire room, or the fact that when the attending finally arrived, he kept coaching her to "push like you're having a bowel movement!" (Because um, she kind of was, with every push).
Ahh. OB. An experience, but I kinda don't miss it too much.
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