A Tisket, A Tasket, An Appendix in a Basket...

I am in full swing with clinicals at the hospital, having just completed my second clinical day.  I absolutely love it.  I was 100% born to interact with patients.  At my clinical this week, I was assigned to one patient to complete a full health history.  That was really a lot of fun, but mainly because my patient was super friendly and really enjoyed talking to me.

The patient I was assigned to was in the hospital for an appendectomy and once he told my clinical instructor how much he liked me and how helpful I was, she asked me if I would be interested in going into the OR with him.  Of course I was!!!  She made a call and got approval (which was surprising because I was only on my second clinical and they usually do not allow such early students into the OR), and I had to ask my patient if he was okay with me watching the removal of his appendix.  He told me yes on one condition, that there would be no peaking while he was under!  I thought that was too funny.

I ended up spending a lot of time with his family in the pre-op area and they were all so excited for me to get to see my very first surgery.  I kept apologizing to the patient for being so excited that he was losing an organ, but I kept telling him if he was going to be down an organ, the appendix is the way to go.

His parents treated me as if I was their own daughter getting ready to go into the OR for the first time.  They took pictures of me after I changed into the OR scrubs, because they wanted me to show them to Ken.  There is no way I could have had a better family to be with for so long.  Soon enough, it was time to head off to the OR.

So excited to go into the OR for the first time!  Never mind that the scrubs I am wearing are four sizes too big!  I could have fit into one leg of those pants.

Watching the surgery was indescribable.  I did not get grossed out at all and never felt like I was going to pass out like a lot of people do in the OR.  I am sure that a heart surgery or even something on the stomach will be a different story.  I kind of thought that it would be like Grey's Anatomy and I would be watching from a window, but I was literally right there in the operating room where I could watch everything.

After the appendix was taken out and placed in a small bag and sucked out, I asked the surgical tech a question and he cut the bag open and pulled the appendix out for me to see.  He placed it in a basin and one of the nurses brought me some gloves and told me to touch it.  I picked the appendix up and held it in my hand and could see the staples from the area where the blood supply was cut off.  It was really cool.  

I went with the patient back to the recovery room and his first question after waking up was to me and he was wondering how I did during his surgery.  

After I made it back to the floor with my classmates, we were in a meeting and the nurse I was assigned with all day came in to get me because the patient's family wanted to see me.  They were so sweet and asked me all about the surgery and how I did.  I feel so fortunate that I got to spend so much of my day with wonderful people and that the patient was going to leave the hospital pain free. 

I went home so excited to tell Ken about my day and me getting to hold an appendix.  

I look forward to many more experiences at the hospital!