Personal Narrative: A Day In The Operating Room

Spending the day in the operating room (OR) can be an exhilarating experience, throughout this paper I will discuss the different aspects of surgery as you follow my journey. I will discuss pre- operative care and testing preformed; operative care, anesthesia, and possible complication; and post-operative care and recovery.
My day in the Operating room began with an introduction to my patient, an 87 year old man who was here for a left hip revision. He previously had a left total hip arthroplasty done in 1988, and was now experience severe pain bring him back for a revision. He also has a history of a cerebral vascular accident leaving him with a pacemaker placement and a coronary artery bypass graft. I addition he has mild osteomyelitis and
Not only did the reviewing nurse ask tones of questions, but there where multiple others including the surgeon and anesthesiologist popping in and asking questions as well. They began with ones like, what is your name and why are you here, then proceeded to more specific areas to include, did you wash with the Hiba cleanse, and when did you last eat, along with, what medications he took this morning. Followed by all the questions and signing of consents, the nurse moved on to the preoperative process of gowning and removal of all items, and collection of valuables to be sent for safe keeping. Vital signs were obtained and the patient was covered with a warming blanket and an intravenous line with a saline drip was started, during which time the surgeon came in again to explain the procedure one last time, and ask if there were any further questions. He explained the process and that until he open the leg and discovered the issue he would be uncertain how much hardware would be replaced. He explained to the patient and family that depending on what he found it would take two to four hours. Followed by which he asked the patient to confirm his name again and the operation being performed, he then signed the leg with a permanent marker in the spot to be operated. The nurse then reviewed with the patient some things that would be in place when he awoke, such as, the sequential compression device and hip immobilizer wedge, plus not being able to roll or move in bed immediately. Other things that could have been included in teaching would be deep breathing, use of incentive spirometer, and post-op hip precautions (Wilkinson., Treas., Barnett., & Smith, 2016.p 539). After double checking all consents the nurse gave the patient a cocktail of drugs which include a dose of Xanax to relieve anxiety and promote relaxation