Surgery and Symphony

"So what makes you want to be a Colon Surgeon?" This was the question asked of me by the lead surgeon in the operating room in the hospital. I was standing not 3 feet away, watching as he reached into the hole in the patient's abdomen, pulled out a couple of feet of the colon, and let it slip through his fingers back into the abdomen. I chuckled nervously, and said, "well, I haven't decided if I want to specialize in any specific type of surgery yet."

This was my introduction into Surgery. My 3rd rotational night as a MedEx started out in the Operation Room with a good friend that I used to go to church with, Michelle. We watched the surgeon perform a colonectomy and a gallbladder removal. The colon had cancer in it, and so they removed about 1 and 1/2 feet. So the person had a hard time walking after that, cause they only had half of a foot left. And no right. Can you imagine walking with only half of your left foot, and no right?? Except that's not exactly what happened. What I meant to say was that a foot and a half of the colon was removed. I didn't know that colons had feet, but I guess they do. After all, I watched them being removed. As for the gallbladder, the removal was unexpected. Let me rephrase that. They meant to remove it, but they didn't know they were going to remove until after the surgery started. I'll let the surgeon's wisdom explain.
Lead Surgeon: "Is that the gallbladder?? Hmmm.....it's now the largest organ in the body."
Back-up Surgeon: "Excuse me, but the skin is the body's largest organ."
LS: "Ha. Notice I said 'largest organ in the body', not of the body. Anyway, that's not a good thing, that the gallbladder's that large...Let's take it out." *turns to Michelle and me* "We weren't planning on doing this originally, but it'll save problems for the patient later if we take it out now."
I'm like, 'okay, whatever you think is best, cause I sure don't know what you know.'
After spending two hours in the OR, I took a two hour rotation in Neuro-Intermediate, where I had my first rotation. I met this really neat guy. He was telling me all these stories about when he was in the Navy. He was so incredibly funny. Example:
Nurse Aide: George*, this is Josiah. He's a Medical Explorer, following me around tonight."
George: Well, good to meet you."
Nurse Aide: *speaking to me, but still facing George* "He's a truck driver."
George: *to me* "You're a truck driver??? You sure don't look like a truck driver."

Or how about when I first met him.
Nurse Aide: *before we enter room* "This next guy is hilarious. He's always making funny comments or taking something that anyone would normally know what you meant, and acting like it means something different."
*entering room*
George: "Where you been?? I've been waiting my whole life for you to come. I always knew you were the one for me."
Nurse Aide: *turns to me* "See what I mean?"

I went to the Symphony performance tonight. They had an amazing cellist. Just phenomonal. Incredible emotion. Wonderful control. And Jewish to boot.
Need I say more?? Oh yeah. You should have been there. It was amazinging, phenomonal, incredible, emotional, wonderful, controlled...wait, I've already said most of that. We'll just stick with the "you should have been there" part.

*Patient's name changed so as to not violate HIPAA laws.

Grandpa dying...and other various updates on things that I haven't posted about for a while, or just random items I wanted to throw in, just to make y

our day, since you checked my blog again...so faithfully.

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”-C.S.Lewis.

What an awesome quote!!! I totally love it.

Well...my dad's dad is slowly dying. He had been in a nursing home for numerous reasons. He had a massive heart attack on Friday morning, and was admitted to the hospital immediately. Tuesday, they found out he had double pneumonia, and kidney failure.

We went up to visit both grandma (who's also in the nursing home up there) and grandpa on Sunday. As far as I know, Grandpa is a Christian. Of course, that is only really known between him and God. I kind of think that it would be best if Grandpa died pretty soon. No more suffering for him. And most of the family is either already there, or coming in this weekend. We'll just see what happens. I'll try to update the blog if we find anything else out. (i.e. major changes in his condition).

I worked at the S-'s new house on Monday and Tuesday. I was working with J, L, S, J, J, and W. Plus two sheetrockers. We sheetrocked almost the entire upstairs walls and ceilings. I am sooo sore. I am totally not used to working with sheetrock up over my head. In fact, I'm not used to working with sheetrock at all. :) I had a massage today, so that made up for a little bit of the soreness.

Last Thursday, I had my 2nd clinical rotation. I was on the Post-Surgical ICU ward. Okay, so last time, when I approached the nurses station to find out what I was doing, the stuck me with a nurse for the 2 hours that I was there. This time, in the ICU, they told me to do whatever I wanted. Just walk around, visit all the rooms, talk to whoever I felt like talking to, etc...So I did. I helped with a bed turning, and helped clean a room out. And I watched/helped with a lung suctioning. I almost passed out at that one. The fellow doing the lung suctioning was a student at a local college. He was being supervised by a respiratory therapist. Anyway, he was up the nose and going down the back of the throat with this tube, suctioning the whole time. Then all of the sudden the junk he was suctioning up changed colors, and the RP in charge said, "I think you're in the esophagus." Yeah...the room started to get a little warm feeling at this point. I'm holding down this poor old lady's hands so she wouldn't grab at the tube going down her throat. She was coughing and gagging. So the student tries again..."nope, still in the esophagus. Pull it out a little until you can feel that you're in the back of the throat. Twist the tube around if you can't tell." Here's where my vision starts to tunnel. It would have been just fine if I was the one doing the operation, but to sit and just watch while feeling this old lady struggle under my hands was almost too much. After the guy got done, I went out into the hallway, and took a few deep breathes. The awful feeling went away pretty quickly, but I'm glad I didn't have to watch multiple lung suctions in a row.

Next week I have 2 rotations on the same day. One is watching a surgery, and the other is the same as my first, Neuro Nursing. So hopefully my feet and back won't give out. Then I've got a piano recital the next day. I'm playing a piece by Chopin, called Nocturne. The actual song itself isn't too difficult, it's just getting the style and accidentals right. And all the stinking trills. Actually, the trills make it easier, cause if you mess up, then you can trill or chromatic up or down to the right note. :)

We had our family picture taken a couple of weeks ago. Here's a couple of the results.

Don't we look grand?? Or at least like a hundred dollars?

And here's the good-looking bunch of boys. Except for....well, I won't write that. Just use whatever your imagination brings to mind. :) And here's me...trying to look smart. Notice the light bulb above my head is not lit. In fact, it almost looks burnt out. :)

And finally, here's a picture of some clouds that my sister took.