My day was filled with joy!

It started early with a request for an IV start for the woman who has been in labor since yesterday as she now needed Pitocin. All day yesterday my patients all had microdrip IV sets. Now when I needed one, do you think I could find it. After much searching, I finally located one. They must hide them to use for our surgery patients (who often need large volumes of IV fluid!).

• Jamie Fisher and Kristy Petersen stayed up all night with the laboring patient
• We (the Hyster Sisters) did 4 hysterectomies today
• once again, put 2 spinals in for Dr. Kennedy and then had him assume care while doing the surgery while I left to do other surgeries
• Jamie and Kristy’s patient delivered a baby boy at 9:10am. Kristy did the delivery and the episiotmy. The mother named her son “Jamie”

• have not turned on my anesthesia machine in 2 days, as the “H” oxygen tank slowly empties, no matter what I did. All my patients had spinals and did amazing well on room air
• the patients families all stay with the patients in the PACU and throughout their stay

• There is often a plate of food on the bed when we bring the patient to the PACU and they are fed almost immediately, yet the nurses won’t let them drink as long as they have an IV in!
• when we don’t have enough help to transfer the patient from the cart to the bed in the PACU, they just gather up other patient’s family members and make them help!
• I keep bending spinal needles trying to get through the tougest ligaments I have ever felt. I guess when you balance all your packages on your head for decades, your ligaments in your back get very tight
• we had a power outage in our windowless OR from 1:07-1:55pm during the most difficult hysterectomy. We had 4 people holding 6 flashlights, Dr. Hale wore a outdoor-type headlamp, and Dr. Brockman wore Mike Cerkas’ baseball cap that had a “lid light” on it.

• I have just worked with the most amazing team of people EVER!