Yesterday I actually finished early, for the first time all week I finished before 5pm. I had every intention of going to the little hospital gym for an hour or two, coming back, cooking some food then going to check my e-mails. And possibly write something in this.
'Well, 5 minutes nap first can't hurt'
4 hours later and it's 9.30 at night, I've finally woken up from my 5 minute nap having done bugger all, all evening. No gym. No dinner. No blog. Frankly, I was too tired to actually care so I just went back to sleep.
Yesterday was actually pretty cool, I finally got to do SOMETHING rather than just stand there desperately trying not to desterilise the operating table and wind up with an angry orthopaedic surgeon chasing me around with a big hammer. Granted all I actually did was cut someone's foot open then stitch it back up after, the registrar did most of the stuff in between but I like to think my contribution mattered.
I'm sitting here trying to think what else I did yesterday but I haven't got a clue. Ah well, can't have been that important.
Today, however, I do have some minor recollection of what happened! Actually got to assist with a mammoth operation (that is to say, an operation that was lengthy in duration rather than an operation on an actual mammoth. I would definitely be up for assisting on that too, though). The patient apparently took on a truck in his car and, needless to say, lost. The X-rays of his legs looked like...have you ever seen one of those 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles all jumbled up? Yeah, his legs looked like that, not pretty. The ortho team had the fun job of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.
All in all, it took about 6 hours. For one leg. Which, considering both femur and tibia were shattered, is pretty good going. My huge part consisted of putting traction on the leg (pulling like buggery) to try and help re-align the shards of bone; normally not a problem, but when part of the tibia is sticking up out of the skin and every time you move a milimetre it makes a horrible crunching noise and blood starts bubbling out, you do tend to feel pressured to keep still. And then, naturally, the urge to sneeze strikes. One leg down at least, which means (if 4 years of medical school has taught me anything) only one more to go. And the best part was, early finish! Which means I can now try and get down the gym and actually cook a meal.
I might just have 5 minutes nap first......
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