About

After working in an operating room for over 28 years, I thought it was about time I told the world about what really happens during surgery. Not that anyone is remotely interested. I’ve probably done, over my nearly 30 year career, scrubbed or assisted on over 20,000 operations, maybe more, I’m not sure, I quit counting long ago.

Let’s do some math. Let’s say I worked 20 days a month and averaged 4 cases a day for 28 years. That’s 80 cases a month, for 336 months. That would come out to over 26,000 cases. Seems like an awful lot of cases. If my math is flawed, I’m sure some whiz kid will let me know. In reality, I may do 10 cases today, 4 tomorrow, and 14 the next day. So, I guess there really isn’t an average month.

I currently work at an outpatient surgery center scrubbing and assisting mostly bread and butter stuff, hernias, gallbladders, tonsil and adenoidectomies, nasal cases, bunionectomies, and a smattering of Plastic Surgery such as breast augs and facelifts. And all that is alright by me.

I don’t pull call anymore. That’s for the young bucks coming into the field, let them have all the fun. No more 2 AM C-Sections or 3 AM appendectomies. No more phone calls from the Obstetrician just before I go to bed, telling me that he “may be doing a C-Section if this lady doesn’t progess much more, just calling to give you a heads up”. No more getting ready to clock out and being told “I need you to hang around, there’s a couple of car wreck victims in the ER”. And that is alright by me.

Yeah, the call pay can be very good, all the extra hours look good on the paycheck. I’m giving it all up for quality of life with the family and my dog. Being able to sleep through the night without fear of the dreaded beeper going off. Making family plans for the weekend, weeks and weeks in advance, not having to worry about whether I’m on call or not. Not worrying about calling the wife and saying “Honey, you guys go ahead and start without me”. And that is alright by me.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my career and have met and worked with some wonderful people. When I look back, I really can’t see myself doing anything else. Those 2 o’clock in the morning C-Sections, seeing mom, dad and baby happy and healthy, that’s what it’s all about folks. Knowing you’ve been part of something special.

Some of my most memorable times were the 4 years I spent as a clinical instructor. Seeing my students progress and gain confidence in their abilities was especially satisfying. One particular student stands out. This guy was shy and very unsure of himself. He was in his early 30′s and was making a life changing decision from working at a large department store to surgical technology. He did well at tech school but when he showed up for his clinicals and got to spend a whole day in a real OR observing, he came to me with doubts about whether he could make it. We worked on technique, back table set up and organization, and we practiced passing instruments over and over again, and went over countless surgical anticipation scenario’s. It was a fantastic feeling to see him scrubbing in, passing with authority and putting all his hard work to use.

On the last day of his clinicals, one of the preceptors asked me if the student could scrub in on a chest case, which student’s normally didn’t scrub in on. A few hours later, he came into my office with this big grin on his face and said he just finished up first scrubbing (with some help from the preceptor) a thoracotomy and lobe resection. Later on after graduating, he took and passed his certification exam and got hired by his local hospital. A year or so later, he sent me a letter saying he had just got hired by Stanford University Hospital with his sights set on working with the Heart Team! Aim High My Man!!

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.