So I had a day of observation in the OR this last week. By the time I was dressed in the official pink surgical scrubs (yes pink, and yes official) there was an ENT surgery and a robotic surgery. One of the other students took the ortho surgery. So I spoke up and took the robot surgery. However, as I walked down the hallway in all my garb I went to walk into the 'antiroom,' which is fancy talk for the wash room just outside the room, I was turned away by the Doc. Yea that was totally disheartening. I thought I was such a loser. So I went back to the office and asked them what to do, and oh was the charge nurse upset that he told me no. But she had me watch a gallbladder removal.
I think I handled the first surgery pretty well, after the surgeon made the first cut he cauterized the area so there was almost no blood, it was crazy! But I was not prepared for the smell. Oh I almost threw up. It is by far one of the most disgusting smells I have ever had the displeasure of knowing. I asked the nurse if you ever get used to the smell, and she said 'oh no.' The surgery had only three small holes that were sutured and had 3 bandaids. That was it. It was nuts how little damage there is to this, and it was only an hour long!
Now the most exciting by far, the robot. The nurse lead me into the room, and told the Doc that I was going to stay and watch and he said it was fine. So as I made my way to the corner, the Doc came to me and said, "sorry I kicked you out before, we just had too many people in here during the pyelogram (an xray for kidney) and there just wasn't room, but its ok for you to stay now." Then the surgeon came over and asked if I was the nursing student and when I confirmed he told me to come over and look into the machine that he was working with. Without going into boring detail of every little thing, it was amazing to see the machine. The surg controls the robot from 5 feet away! He isn't even scrubbed in. The robot has 3 arms, 2 to do the actual surgery and 1 for the camera. The surgeon has control over all of it. Watching this machine work was just incredible. It kind of looked like a crab, or half of one I guess. The pt went under some extensive reconstruction of the kidney, and when it was all done he had 3 bandaids and one 4x4 of gauze. It is so amazing what technology can do these days. How great that major surgeries can have such little trauma to the pt.
At any rate, I love the OR. I didn't think I would but I do love it. So that is something to think about when I graduate.
