Friday, June 13, 2008

What I get for being stupid

So... I haven't fainted in 9 years. And much to my shame, I managed to put myself in a position to drop while working in theatre (OR) during my surgical rotation. It's entirely my own fault, and what I'll say is this:
+ Mucho stress for about a month straight
+ Less than 3 hour sleep
+ Tequila shots
+ Very early morning
+ Unhappy stomach (re: Tequila)
+ Not eating breakfast
+ Dehydration
+ Standing on feet for 3 hours
+ Scrubbing in for a long surgery and being under the lights and retracting stuff and sweating and not moving..
______
= Fainting...
Yeah, Liz of the impervious stomach managed to bite it during surgery. Thankfully, I recognised the impending faint and got out of the gown and gloves, out of the actual OR and into a chair. I was busy putting my head between my knees and sending a friend to get me a glass of water when I hit the floor. I broke my fall with my face and my knee... Go me. So I have a nice bruise on my chin (see pict below). The impressive stat was my BP about a minute after the faint was a whopping 94/45 (normal BP = 120/80 and while I have low-normal BP, it's normally around 110/65).

If there's something very wrong with you, the Operating suite of a hospital is a great place to faint. I was on a gurney in the recovery room within 2 minutes, one of the anesthetists put an IV line into an impossible vein on the side of my wrist (he was the only one that could even find a vein at the time) and I was on fluids and glucose and O2 (totally unnecessary). However, if there's nothing really wrong with you, you're just going to embarrass yourself over and over again as you explain that you were an idiot, there's nothing wrong with you, and it wasn't the surgery that made you faint. I had to fill out an incident report and was processed through the A&E, given an ECG (all normal), and sent home early. They were all very lovely... And I think my dignity is bruised worse than anything else.

I suppose you're wondering why I was out so late drinking such things that I refuse to drink... Other than my idiocy, it's because our exam results came out. Everyone in my class passed all three exams! We are super happy! So atleast I have good reason for being an idiot, right? Yeah... maybe.

















You should see the other guy...

~LLL

2 comments:

Greer Hannan said...

Still, fainting at the OR is probably better than puking.

Liz Larkin said...

Touche, Greer... especially if you're still in the OR, because I'm pretty sure they frown upon vomiting on the patient. It can't be sterile.