Once in a Lifetime

Every so often, an experience comes along that you know is once-in-a-lifetime, an experience that you know most people don't get. On Wednesday, I had what will probably be the highlight of nursing school.

As you know, I'm in my Maternal Health unit. It's only 5 weeks and is going by entirely too fast. I was assigned a patient who had been brought into the hospital for a midnight induction. By the time I got there, she had dilated to 3cm. (full dilation is 10) At 9, the nurse and I both examined her and found her to be at 5cm. We were hoping for a mid-afternoon delivery if everything went according to plan. Of course, nothing ever goes that way and at 1:30 she was still only 5cm and was having very strong contractions with no progress. We also noticed that the baby's head was swelling pretty badly. The doctor was notified and a c-section was decided on. When the doctor walked in, I realized it was the same one who had explained how to read a fetal heart rate monitor the week before. He recognized me and asked if I'd like to scrub in... Would I? Wow!

For those of you who aren't medically savvy, scrubbing in is a big deal. It's what you see the TV doctors doing before surgery - you scrub with a special brush up to the elbows and wash the soap off very carefully. Then you walk into the OR with your hands in the air and water dripping off your elbows. A scrub technician then helps you dry off with sterile towel and then dresses you in a sterile gown and gloves. Students never get to do this; we're relegated to the back of the OR and watch from a distance, or we stand by the anesthesiologist. I was standing right next to the surgeon, we were literally bumping shoulders.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing this was! He had me name each layer of tissue, touch them, palpate them. I stuck my hand inside the uterus and measured the thickness of this incredible muscle. The human body is absolutely miraculous...

After the c-section, I got to watch and assist with a vaginal delivery. This is no less miraculous and the poor mom had to really work hard to have this baby as he was facing the wrong way. (Not breech, but his face was up instead of down.) The baby's grandmother took pictures of us and sent them to me - I am so lucky to have these as we are not allowed to take pictures ourselves in accordance with privacy laws. So here they are!

This is the waiting game... the mom had given herself a bolus in her epidural, so much that she couldn't even feel pressure to push. This meant that we had to wait it out. The OB doc is on the right.