C-Section

Last Thursday I saw a human c-section!!!

For my college career planning class I had to do a job shadow (still need one more) and luckily got ahold of a nurse in the local hospital, so the Friday before last I shadowed her for four hours and learned SO MUCH. I had a wonderful time, she was so nice and explained everything that she was doing, had me feel a fundus and told me about different medications. I got to hold a c-section baby that was only two hours old and then help bathe the baby, and hold two other babies that were just a day old! (Soooooo cute!)

And THEN she asked me if I would like to see a c-section, because they had one scheduled for Thursday! I was so happy and excited!!!

So Thursday rolls around and I go into the hospital and say hi to everyone, meet the expectant mom and father, (who are so nice, they had no problem with me being in there and were very friendly), meet the nurse anesthesiologist, some other nurses, the assistant surgeon, and the surgeon and we all go in the surgery and get things set up.

When the nurse anesthesiologist started prepping for the spinal block, I was so excited to see it, and got right up close with another student.

When he started to stick the needle in multiple times . . . we got woozy. The mom was flinching away from the needle and . . . I just don't like needles! I'm fine with them near animals, but near me or humans I get all weird. I started feeling odd and went and sat down with the assistant surgeon, but then the anesthesiologist called me back up to see him pulling out some spinal fluid and then injecting the drugs through the huge needle.

Lights started flashing in front of my eyes, my vision went blurry, my face went numb and my body felt detached from my head. It was all I could do to concentrate and tell myself "I am not going to faint. I am NOT going to faint."

I have never felt like that before in my life and I don't want to feel it again! I was totally out of control of what my body was doing. I went over out of the way (they were prepping her stomach for the incision) and sank down against the wall on a stool. Several of the nurses came to see if I was okay. The other student had to leave the room, I later heard she thought she was going to vomit.

A nice nurse gave me a cold cloth for the back of my neck and I slowly got control of myself. I looked up and saw they were just about to start, and right as they started to slice open her stomach I felt better. This is familiar! I see DR cutting into dogs and cats all the time. So I stood up and felt much more like myself, and watched the rest of the surgery just fine!

It was SO cool. They cut her right open, used really big hooky things to pull the skin apart, cut open the uterus and out came baby butt! And then feet. And finally a head! A beautiful baby boy! It took them longer to suture her back up than it did to get him out! Also the surgeon gave me an anatomy lesson by pulling out her uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries and showing me intestines. Totally cool.

I hung around for a few more hours, peered over their shoulders at paperwork, ooohed over the baby in the nursery, hung out with the mom, and generally had a lot of fun!

Seeing a baby born is an incredible experience, and I would totally recommend it to anyone!

Also a bonus: grossing out anyone (like Nick) who doesn't like blood and guts with your awesome stories. Like the large amount of blood and the clots and slicing flesh.

(One more thing to be excited about--Aimee might let me be in the surgery room when her baby is born! Wheee!!!)