Suckage

Today SUCKED. I ran my ass off, and three people went home early, two without telling anybody. Not a happy thing. Only two rooms going, but huge cases with difficult turnovers. And really not quite enough staff.

A hip arthroscopy requires four foot pedals, all of which must be plastic bagged. Full size C-arm, two neptune suction units, fluid pump, table full of fluid bags, electro cautery, shaver, lead aprons for all staff in the room. Special bed attachments and padding, on top of the usual arthroscopy tower and sterile field, and various case specific details - as always. Boring as hell (except for the surgeon) during the case, but the set up and changeover is a lot of work. There were three today.

Two of the people who left were critical for the second turnovers for both rooms, and were not there. Charge nurse not happy, so I let her be the one to be pissed. I simply ran and sweated.

The other room was all shoulders, which also means a special bed - built for function, not comfort. And long cases ending up with a lot of fluid on the floor requiring clean up. (No, not blood. A bit pinkish, but mostly just wet and messy.) Long arthroscopy means a lot of spilled liquid- lactated ringers to be specific. Sets to be turned over, then out of the autoclave and had to be cooled down.

And for some reason, I was ravenously hungry all day long. Gave support and breaks, and then ate my lunch, then relieved one scrub for his lunch, did the HUGE turnover. Then the other to let the nauseated pregnant scrub go home. The last shoulder in that room was a HUGE tear, and a new to-that-surgeon approach. A long process, some of which seemed longer than reasonable, but what do I know? Thorough, certainly. Felt bad that the patient's lovely tattoo would be scarred, but with that defect, he'd probably have chosen function over his tattoo.

I did this imperfectly, my circulator having to get a lot of stuff for me. Poor dear. Nice part about shoulder repairs, good patterns, giving the surgeon what he needs without being asked is very satisfying. (Crab Claw, Scorpion, Tissue grasper, mayo scissor and fiberwire cutter, repeat.) Redeemed myself through attentiveness.

My hands were freezing, partly the cool room, partly that my hands were wet the whole time. I rested them on the patient's legs, which were covered with the air warmer - called a Bair Hugger. Helped a bit, but my fingers tingled all the way home, and I appreciated the sun heated steering wheel. They've thawed out by now.


I had an idea for a good, thoughtful post this morning, but I can't remember it. So, this is what you get. Deal.