BeachMomma
Sweet n Innocent
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2012
- Posts
- 4,011
I bet that was a blood bath-- how do they even see anything to fix it? I guess clamp and work? I have never seen it yet, and I always thought they die quick. It must have been an experience.
Did you have to get up and go to the H for call a lot in the OR?
I am thinking about one day working in the OR, when I get done with this ICU business. I don't think I would want to scrub in, but maybe as a circulator? Have you thought about RNFA? Do they even exist? I know there are programs...
I know anesthesia has got to be a nice job-- making people comfortable, taking away pain, but I just don't think I could handle the school, and it's kinda scary!
It was. We transfused him so much that we depleted the blood bank's supply. We had to have the police transport blood from 2 other nearby cities. He was already open when his aorta blew. The doc literally put his finger in the hole to plug it until we could get it clamped off. It was the scariest case I've ever scrubbed. It was even worse because it was the father of one of our CRNAs.
Scrubbing is the most fun you can have in an OR. Circulating is rather boring. There's no way I could stand circulating. Yeah, I've considered RNFA. That's my back up plan if I can't get into anesthesia school. As a CST, I first assisted a lot. I'm better at first assisting than working the mayo stand. I like being hands on.
Callback is unpredictable at best. Usually callback involves staying late more than being called back, but it depends on your hospital. If the hospital staffs a 2nd or 3rd shift, the callback *shouldn't* be as common. I only worked at hospitals that staffed for day shift, so yeah, I pulled a lot of overtime. When you're on weekend call, you know you'll spend it at the hospital - at least part of a day.
Oddly enough, I worked more callback in endo than I ever did in the OR. For a couple of years, I was the only tech at my hospital who knew how to scrub endo, so I was on call 24/7 for quite a few years. I can't count how many times a family function got interrupted because I had to go to the hospital. We finally started taking two vehicles when we went anywhere because we knew I'd get called in. When hubby had to take me to the hospital three times in a row - then come get me again, he decided fuck it. I could just drive my car so I could leave without him having to leave too. lol I wouldn't even cook a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner because I knew I'd be interrupted while I was trying to cook. Thank God those days are over!
As a general rule, anesthesia is boring. You *want* it to be boring. Most of the time, doing anesthesia is like flying a plane. Take off and landing is dangerous, but during the flight itself, you put it on automatic pilot. I can't count how many times I've seen anesthesia do crossword puzzles, read the paper, or draw pictures on the sheets during long cases. I wouldn't be one of those anesthetists; I'm a little too anal retentive for that.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen from anesthesia was in endoscopy. We were doing a colonoscopy with MAC anesthesia and talking and joking around. The patient bradied down in the 40s, and the anesthetist hit the floor running. He had atropine drawn up and administered in less time than it took me to type this paragraph. We'd never seen him move that fast before.
I'd certainly never do that. Nobody in your profession needs that added stress.
I had a girlfriend who thought it was funny to say my radio call-sign when I was sleeping. But didn't think it was funny when I started interrupting her sleep in ways that awoke her to a high pulse rate and mild terror. Some people just live on one-way streets. I told her when she stopped, I would.
Also knew some people who thought it was cute to throw a fist-sized rock into a room I was in and yell "Grenade!". My technique for curing them of that did not involve waiting for anything. It is a damned stupid trick to pull on someone who is armed.
I am really much happier with my pulse rate in the 60-80 range, and no large shots of adrenaline. Save that stuff for when it is needed.
I'm with you on that one. My daughter learned real fast that's not a good way to wake up Mom. It WORKS, but it's not a good idea. My reaction was so swift and sudden that it scared her. I had my clothes on and starting out the door before she convinced me that she was just trying to wake me up. Needless to say, I didn't go back to sleep for a good long time.
I can't believe anybody would play any kind of trick on someone who is armed - especially a trick that induces an adrenaline response. That shit is just dangerous. There's nothing funny about it at all.