The day started with breakfast at 6:15 when I found out that one nurse anesthetist was in bed with fever, chills, cough and clearly couldn’t come to work. We have just enough people to put one doctor in that room and leave the other doctor, that would be Me, covering 2 rooms and preop and recovery and giving breaks. I have done it before so it’s a bit hectic but possible. It helps that the 2 nurse anesthetists are experienced and have been here before.
We had a very full day with 2 first stage cases in each of 3 rooms. That’s about 10 hours of surgery per room. I managed to give breaks and feed everyone lunch with a little help from one of the pediatric anesthesiologists who gave one lunch break. We did 6 first stage cases. Those are operations where rib cartilage is harvested and shaped into an ear framework. Then the cartilage framework is placed in a pocket that has been created in the area where the ear should have formed. The whole process takes about 5-6 hours per case. The surgery itself is interesting and the anesthesia requires understanding what parts are stimulating requiring more anesthesia (the rib harvest) and what part is almost no stimulation (the carving of the cartilage done away on a table away from the patient).
We finally ended the day around 7:30 pm. Several of us went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, Frida’s which has excellent margaritas. It’s nice to wind down a long day together. Tomorrow looks very busy too. We are here to work and do as much as possible. So that’s the plan.
The Adventures of Anne 