grey's anatomy here i come!

today was an AMAZING day at clinicals. kendy and i got placed in same day surgery, and we worked with the nicest nurses, doctors and anesthesiologists i've ever got to follow. the nurses were so helpful and really wanted to give us a great experience at same day surgery. the first nurse took us in the endoscopy room to watch the doctor do 3 colonoscopys and an something with a really long name and i don't remember what it was something like esophagealsomething something which they go down through the esophagus into the stomach and small intestine. the doctor was so fast at all the scopes! and the nurse said he was very good at what he does and i can totally understand. he looked at the whole colon and explained what was to a good colon and i learned so much that i haven't ever learned in my many classes.

after all the scopes were done the next really nice nurse made sure we got to go the OR as soon as one of the OR doctors came over she sent us over with him and kendy and i got to change into OR scrubs (!) and put on the booties, hat and mask. i felt like i was in grey's anatomy it was so cool! the first surgery i got to watch was someone who had endometriosis and they were trying to lessen the effects of it and cutting parts of the endometrium out. the second surgery i got to see was the craziest for sure, the surgeons took a 9 pound ovarian cyst out of a girl. it was so crazy and i couldn't believe that something could get so big and that no one would catch it until it was so big that the surgeons couldn't go in laparscopically and remove it but instead had to make an enormous abdomnial incision which required many stitches and staples to close it back up. the doctors were so excited (i could tell that it was something really out of the ordinary for them too) because once they took it out of the abdominal cavity they got a little measuring ruler and started taking pictures of the cyst. the third and last surgery i got to watch was mesh that had been placed in a woman's vagina to hold it up had eroded and they had to go in and take all the mesh out. i felt so bad for this woman and can't imagine what's she's had to go through since this was her second time through it and will have to do something again in a few weeks. it makes me scared to have children because i wouldn't want to have to go through that. ever.

i was so impressed with the OR and how smoothly they work. everyone is so professional and their number one goal is (besides the patient) to keep everything super sterile and they just have it down to an art. it was also surprising how EVERYTHING on the patient is draped and covered head to toe except for where they are going to work. even the face is covered and draped with plastic. it was kind of unnerving to see that their face was covered, but they are intubated and that is how they are breathing so the plastic isn't affecting breathing.

the anesthesiologist was also amazingly nice, when he intubated the patients he let me look over his should and see the esophagus and the vocal cords. he also was the one who came over and explained about what was going on in the surgery and answered any questions i had. it was such an amazing day and such a good first clinical!!