Part of the problem of having spent about seven years in surgery is that you become an insider. I took many years off from the Operating Room to get a few degrees, only to find out when I left grad school that there were no jobs for me. I turned to working as a med tech and aide for an agency just to feed and house myself and my cat ( the irascible Clancy -AKA the Grey Menace). While having lunch one day in the cafeteria, I had a conversation with an OR nurse. What do OR people talk about at lunch? Surgery, of course. About two days later, I was approached by the hospital administration about interviewing for work in the OR.
I’d stay employed on contract with the agency, but work in the OR for much better money than I got doing care on the medical-surgical hospital floors. How could I say no? I was there for two years; until I found professional employment as an applied anthropologist.
I have, or had, a reputation as being a nudge in the operating room. Luckily, I was rapidly teamed with Rob and Marilyn, who were also nudges. Interns and residents beware, reach for an instrument on my Mayo stand and get your hand slapped. Accidentally contaminate a sterile field and get sent out to the scrub room to strip, scrub, and return to be regowned and gloved. 99.9 percent of the surgeons liked our approach, even if it became inconvenient once in a while. The .1 percent? We made life hell for them.
On The Game
Why were we liked? We made a point of having everything an individual surgeon needed ready, working, and at hand. We were intently interested in the procedure, the anatomy involved, and the approach taken. Most of the surgeons liked to teach. And they respected an interest in what they are doing. A surgical team that understands the procedure and the anatomy is more likely to be “On the game”, respond appropriately when something goes wrong, and can lend a hand if needed.
A Snip Here and One There
So what about me and surgery? It came about a year after I left the OR to work professionally as an anthropologist. I needed a procedure, and one of the surgeons I had worked with would do the procedure. Gordon was someone whom I had immense respect for, a professor of surgery, and an intently professional surgeon. He, like me, was a bit of a nudge. Our “nudginess” hadn’t always matched up. But we always had had the best interests of the patient at heart. I knew that I’d be in good hands for the procedure.
The morning of the procedure, I was prepped and then rolled into the operating room. I was prepared for the surgery by the anesthesiologist and operating room crew. Then in walks Gordon, moving in two big mirrors. These he set up so I’d be able to watch the procedure in detail. Looking at me, he said, “I know how fussy you are, so now you’ll be able to watch and tell me if I’m doing anything wrong. OK?” All this was accompanied by grins and laughter from the OR crew who knew Gordon, and had heard about me from him.
Gordon had his revenge for my “nudginess,” and I recovered completely from the procedure. The Scrub tech didn’t have to slap my hand once.
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Have I had surgery.? 30 years ago my appendix was removed, a teratom was removed (probably a twin sister than never developed) and my womb. I became a light weight afterwards. It was a 9 hour operation but I survived. It was actually the second operation. On the first one, onl 3-4 hours, they did not remove everything, but now it is perfect, with a few interesting scars afterwards.
I also have a few centimeters of steel in my once broken arm, yes. the wonders of surgery. At the age of 78 I no longer need to have anything removed, I hope-
Remember seeing the post about your arm, and wanting to have the surgeon autograph it. I’ve seen that happen when a doc is particularly happy with a procedure, you tke a sterile skin marker and sign – sometimes the entire surgical crew p- very distinctive.
I’ve had surgery so many times I own my own knives and almost enough stamps to get my own saw.