Thursday 28 August 2008

In which I lose the will...


From my point of view, giving a general anaesthetic is interesting for about an hour or so. In the first hour you induce the patient, do your nerve blocks and stabilise your patient for surgery. After the operation has lasted an hour or so, I start to get really fucking bored. There’s only so much fiddling with the vapourisers that a man can do before it starts to lose its appeal. Today, I was giving an anaesthetic to a man who needed an 8-hour operation and I tell you – after three hours I was bored, after six hours, I was climbing the walls and by the end, I’d almost lost the will to live. What on earth do you do with yourself for eight hours once you have a stable patient?
I tell you what I did - I did some revision, I chatted to the theatre staff, I put on some music, I poked fun at the surgeons and I even read the paper. In fact, I found myself turning into one big cliché!

I know for sure that there’s no way in hell that I could do long operations for the rest of my days – it would drive me crazy

6 comments:

Jobbing Doctor said...

Unfortunately, Michael, this is what anaesthesia is like. And you have to listen to the most egotistical and opinionated self-serving bunch of doctors - the surgeons.

You have hit the peak. Downhill from here.

Cultivate the art of Sudoku. Have a decision as to what music is played (if its not Mozart then you're in trouble!) Do the crossword.

Anonymous said...

Well, you can do what you like as long as you don't lose the patient!

Poor guy. I hope his outcome is good.

madsadgirl said...

Well you did get some revision done, so it can't be all bad.

Anonymous said...

It does sound boring. Then again, without your expertise in sedating a patient would they be able to have the opeation in the first place?

SSS said...

I often do the crossword with my favourite anaesthetists. It's the highlight of my day.

Jobbing Doc, I thought that was just orthopods?

Anonymous said...

Ahhh Good old Suman and Alex of Amateur Transplants. This has got to be one of my favourite of their songs.

How many other people can say they did the crossword for most of the day and got paid for it?

There's always a brightside, JuniorDoc.


I'd be interested on your thoughts on my latest post. Pop over for a look. Its about anaphylaxis.