New life

Today was another day in the Zoo.

However it kinda sucked cos after they rostered us for a day off tomorrow, they informed us at 1pm today that we couldnt take the day off and all had to show up tomorrow even though we'd made plans for th eday off. Stupid admin! They can't even run a hospital!

Anyways, the day started with a quick ward round followed by some discharges and then off to theatre to play with sharp objects.

My boss let me help out with his theatre so there we all were, the boss, the reg and their intern (ie ME!) all with our hands inside someone's abdominal cavity, up to our elbows in blood. We were lopping off bits of kidneys (partial nephrectomies) and I learnt a very valuable lesson from this.

Now when boys are babies, most mothers will wanr you of the danger of standing directlyl in front of them when changing a nappy because inevitably you will get shot with urine.

Well when carving out chunks of cancerous renal tissue, one should really clamp the renal artery first and stand well back when actually chopping.

As the boss cut thru the purple-looking kidney I was hit with a jet of blood that looked like a little boy peeing at me. Here I was all scrubbed up intently gazing into the sterile field when I was suddenly soaked in fresh blood from a recently nicked artery. Thankfully I had my eye vizor on!

"We've got a bleeder" remarked the boss, ever so dryly. Thankyou Captain Obvious for that wonderful piece of insight!

But still, it was fun cos at the end I got to help the reg close up and she let me go nuts with the staple gun (whcih I'm sure most med students have used but seeing as I never showed up during med school to theatre it was a new toy for me)

Then I had to go and admit a lady who tomorrow is donating her kidney to her sick daughter (who is currently next door in the kiddies hospital). It's very touching to see a mother's love for her daughter when she is willing to give her own kidney to save her daughter from a life time of sickness. That kind of self sacrifice is all too rare in general these days.

For once I didn't mind staying back an extra hour to fix her up and get her ready for surgery.

Which brings me to my last point for today. As I was walking out of the hospital I got an SMS from my Aunty saying that my cousin had just given birth next door in the private hospital, so I promptly turned around and went to visit the mother and child.

My cousin and I aren't really close or anything, but it was nice to catch up with her and chat about life in general. The baby was really cute and only 30 hours old with a full head of hair. After a long day of operating it was really nice to go and see a brand new baby.

A new person untouched by the burden of chronic disease. A new life just about to begin.