Saturday Night Surgery

Since I arrived here on March 4th I have been oncall. 24/7. The community has been relatively quiet though, only a few late night calls and most of them were just pukey kids. There are no RCMP here so the fact that things have been quiet is a good thing.

Mind you I like a bit of excitement; and last night we got some. My first suturing gig ☺

Nothing dramatic, just an accidental knife slice. They didn't hit a tendon, just a good chunk of fatty tissue. We cleaned the wound and prepared to sew. The laceration was only about 1 and 1/2 cm long but it bled enough. I hadn't had a lot to eat so I quickly ran off and stuffed some trail mix down my throat before I got too lightheaded. I've passed out in surgery before and it's not cool.

Despite it being the first time I saw my preceptor stitch something up other than the pork chop we had practiced on, he let me sew 2 stitches in. My steady hands surprised myself. But to be honest, I really wanted to cringe with every poke like the patient's mother. To keep from getting queezy I tried to imagine it was the pork chop. Minus the blood, fresh fatty tissue, tough mother fuckin' skin and live subject, no difference really.

None the less I made it through without butchering the flesh or fainting. Mother made it without crying. And the patient made it through with all her digits, now intact.

Sweet success.