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- Jan 23, 2002
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Ok, so my daughter was having her tonsils taken out. She had been snorring like an overweight smoker for most of her 18 months so it was time to yank 'em.
TO make a long story short, we were told by our FP that it would be done in a..... (can't find the English word; patient is semi-conscious, not really knowing what's going on). It turned out that our FP was wrong; they never do that on kids that age.
So we're going down towards the OR with our little baby. They gave her some suppository that made pretty groggy but she still knew what was going on and she was obviously very nervous. SHe's starting to talk and she decided to combine the words "scary doctor".
Now, the anesthesiologist takes one look at her chubby hands and tells us she probably wouldn't hit a veinn in the first attempt and that our daughter would flip out despite the lidocain if she had to stick away again and again. So it's straight from the mask. She (the doc) looks a little worried about it and obviously that bothers me.
So our baby slug is carried on to the operation table. She looks like a little scared princess inher green gown on the large table. She starts to cry but the nurses hold her down. At that point I think we could have calmed her down but the nurses started the mask on her and now she was obviously terrified. We've all seen people go under with an i.v. anesthetic but this straight gas thing wasn't that fast and painless. She kept struggling like a fish gasping for air (for water?). Once, she almost got out of the mask and the nurse had to ask another nurse help hold her down.
Suddenly she spots us behind the nurses. She looks straight at me with a look that says "these people are smothering me and you are not helping?" Her pupils were bigger than I've ever seen them before, her little hands clenched in frightened fists.
After this my wife cried for 5 minutes with me deifnitely getting a wobbly chin and being quite shook up. And you know what, the one nurse also started to cry (this really surprised me but I think it was because of our reaction).
All this over a stupid tonsillectomy??!? Yes, and that's the point of the story......
We should never, ever forget how freaked out and terrified our patients are. Man, if she had had some cancer or something acute and life-threatening, I can't even imagine what that would have been like. I'll tell you, even after a long weary shift, I'd still prefer our side of the syringe any day.
ps. as a side note, when she came back she had cotton balls on both her feet and both her hands. I guess the the gas-doc was right when she said she couldn't find a vein in her first attempt. More like her 6th according to my count.
TO make a long story short, we were told by our FP that it would be done in a..... (can't find the English word; patient is semi-conscious, not really knowing what's going on). It turned out that our FP was wrong; they never do that on kids that age.
So we're going down towards the OR with our little baby. They gave her some suppository that made pretty groggy but she still knew what was going on and she was obviously very nervous. SHe's starting to talk and she decided to combine the words "scary doctor".
Now, the anesthesiologist takes one look at her chubby hands and tells us she probably wouldn't hit a veinn in the first attempt and that our daughter would flip out despite the lidocain if she had to stick away again and again. So it's straight from the mask. She (the doc) looks a little worried about it and obviously that bothers me.
So our baby slug is carried on to the operation table. She looks like a little scared princess inher green gown on the large table. She starts to cry but the nurses hold her down. At that point I think we could have calmed her down but the nurses started the mask on her and now she was obviously terrified. We've all seen people go under with an i.v. anesthetic but this straight gas thing wasn't that fast and painless. She kept struggling like a fish gasping for air (for water?). Once, she almost got out of the mask and the nurse had to ask another nurse help hold her down.
Suddenly she spots us behind the nurses. She looks straight at me with a look that says "these people are smothering me and you are not helping?" Her pupils were bigger than I've ever seen them before, her little hands clenched in frightened fists.
After this my wife cried for 5 minutes with me deifnitely getting a wobbly chin and being quite shook up. And you know what, the one nurse also started to cry (this really surprised me but I think it was because of our reaction).
All this over a stupid tonsillectomy??!? Yes, and that's the point of the story......
We should never, ever forget how freaked out and terrified our patients are. Man, if she had had some cancer or something acute and life-threatening, I can't even imagine what that would have been like. I'll tell you, even after a long weary shift, I'd still prefer our side of the syringe any day.
ps. as a side note, when she came back she had cotton balls on both her feet and both her hands. I guess the the gas-doc was right when she said she couldn't find a vein in her first attempt. More like her 6th according to my count.
