anaesthetic life!

my latest source of amusement is a magazine called anaesthetic life. it's like women's weekly with a medical spin. it covers topics like: do doctors make poor conversationalists? and there's a surgical life also.

anaesthetics is fun. i haven't learnt as much as i did during my previous option unit, but i've been doing quite a bit of practical stuff. today i was happily chilling in the corner, when the anaesthetist turned to me and said "so your job is to put the drip into the patient".

i know i said that my goal for the year is to put in as many drips as i can, but i was envisioning a less stressful situation than before theatre, with surgeons, nurses, technicians, all waiting and the cost/minute of running a theatre continuing along without any consideration for others at all. so i happily informed him that "uh, well you see, my drip success rate isn't really..."

he bought it. and proceeded to demonstrate "ideal textbook cannulation method". i actually regretted not having a go myself, because when the patient came in i saw that his veins were enormous. typical!

then we decided we could bag-mask ventilate patient one for the entire duration of their procedure (it was a quick procedure). halfway through, my muscles started aching like mad, and i confided in the anaesthetist that i was feeling some major lactic acidosis in my muscles. he volunteered to take over, but i heroically said that i would continue, unless it interfered with my ability to maintain a good seal on the face mask.

so there i was, crouched uncomfortably over the patient, muscles aching, watching the surgeons as they critically evaluated their work. time stretched to infinity. when the surgeon randomly paused and looked up at me, i thought of my pain and how ridiculous the situation was and started giggling like mad. "just some lactic acidosis", the anaesthetist said, by way of explanation. i laughed even harder. the surgeon asked me if i'd snuck myself some laughing gas.

oh, and i also got accused of being a homewrecker. by my supposedly sedated patient, no less! turns out he was less sedated than i had realised, and listening with great interest while i was being harassed by the surgeon. but i forgive him, since he generously allowed me to bring my drip count up to two :)