i sat in a four-hour "scrub" class yesterday and learned so much; i could not help but wish i had been through this class prior to scrubbing in *for real*, but that is quite alright as well. there are reasons for everything.
the main thing impressed upon me was to have a good "surgical conscience" - which employs "asceptic technique," maintaining sterility of certain areas of the operating room so as not to infect the patient or compromise the setting for surgery.
sounds easy. i can assure you, it is not.
when you are unsterile, you cannot touch anything that is; you cannot so much as reach across a sterile field (area, say table: sterile drapes unfolded, surgical gloves out, sponges, et cetera - all of these being opened after inspection of packages for being compromised and sealed properly with appropriate indicators on the insides) with an unsterile arm or you risk contamination if you touch anything, even slightly and by accident - everything has to be thrown out and you must restart from the beginning. for this girl who has not been known for her grace, there is no little amount of stress involved.
you would think that once you are sterile (gowned, gloved, masked, goggled, hatted and bootied) that you are free from contamination; you are not. you can touch the sterile areas now, but must be careful as there are still unsterile areas in the o.r. and people in the o.r. that have not employed the same techniques as you have, so you cannot brush up against them with any part of you that is sterile. think "front of penni=sterile (and only from waist to chest and arms); back of penni=not." you cannot turn your back to a sterile field because your risk brushing up against a table. you are then contaminating the area and you can imagine how i would have felt had i done so.
i have not, thank you Lord.
once you are scrubbed, you cannot reach your hands above your shoulders, you cannot dangle them to your sides. you have to stand in a "praying" position - hands folded or clasped in front of you, as if you are on your knees (but do not be on your knees, tyvm) in prayer - until the start of surgery or the mayo stand is positioned over the patient (stand with instruments). then you can rest your hands on top of the stand because it is, of course, sterile.
and so it goes.
second day, second-scrubbing now with preceptor. we are in an o.r. that is a bit on the hot side, but we are preparing for the section and there are about 10 people in the room already and we are awaiting the surgeon and his assistant to come in. i am in the praying position and my preceptor told me that if i "prayed any harder, i would lose sensation in my fingers." i did not realize i was that tense :)
my glasses are fogging up with every breath i take. i am beginning to do my inner freak-out because i cannot clean them off; they remain as they are. i am okay, Lord, right? i continue to pray, but for real only the team just thinks i am standing there in the ready position.
doctor walks in. takes one look at me and says "are you okay?"
"why, yes -- yes, i am --" (thinking that was really nice that he even acknowledged my presence...)
"are you sure?" question is still pointed at my direction.
"yes, of course -- why do you ask?"
"because you are sweating."
"that is impossible --- i don't sweat." other than when i exercise and God knows i avoid that at all costs....
"uh, yeah. ya do...."
i look over at marilynn and she said, "you are drenched."
the fog on my visor was not fog from my glasses being smeared, it was sweat dripping down like rain on a windshield. i was a wreck and did not even realize it. Lord, have mercy on me.
doctor looks at me when marilynn starts to gown him and says "no -- i want her to do it."
(that would be me, Queen o' Sweat)
oh, crap. "i am not ready to do that, i do not know how."
"i'll teach you."
and so it went for the balance of the two hours -- he taught me how to gown him, glove him, hand him off the instruments; explained body parts and why he was doing what he was doing. it was actually quite remarkable that he was teaching me as he went along, but i was told that he was like that and enjoys doing so.
it was amazing. i actually relaxed and for the next c-section, after i rescrubbed and redid everything, was more at ease and it went even better. i already know the instruments by heart and after yesterday's class, feel even more confident.
~*~*~*~*~
i could not help but think if we were as careful when it came to sinning or being involved in a near occasion of sin the same as we have to be in a sterile environment -- if our moral consciences were as acutely intuned to God as we are with our patients when we employ our surgicial consciences -- how much better off would we be as a people of God?
however -- which occasion should make us break more of a sweat?
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