What John is up to...
I thought I would try and share what John is doing in my own simplistic, non-technological way. It really does blow my mind what he is learning.... and DOING to people! Today he is in surgeries (5) all day.
Basically, the night before he goes into the hospital, he calls to find out what surgeries he will be a part of the next day. Then he pulls out a 20 pound book where he looks up the surgery and studies all about what the surgeon will be doing. Then he starts on the math. He figures out percentages and ratios of drugs that he will be administering throughout the operation.
Before the operation he meets with the patient and talks to them about everything. He then gives the patient the necessary drugs to put them to sleep and/or a paralzying agent for part of their body. By the ratio and type of drugs he gives, he decides how quickly they need to be put to sleep and how deeply. He figures out body weight, medical history, other drugs in the system... all of this in order to determine how much and of what to give.
During the surgery, the surgeon is completely focused on what procedure he is doing. However, the health and well being of the patient is the complete responsibility of John. He is down by the patients head and he is paying attention to blood pressure, heart rate and breathing. He told me last week that he watches to see if the body is in pain. He said that even if the patient is asleep and can't feel the pain, the "body" can and the way he can tell is by watching what happens to blood pressure or heart rate, etc... So, he watches all that intently and then administers whatever he needs to to make sure that the body is at peace again.
The surgeries he has been a part of are.... ughh... too much for me! Last week he watched a surgeon pull all the guts out of somebody and lay them on their body. Once he looked up and saw a surgeon inserting a huge needle in someone's eye socket. This morning he is doing a surgery where they are removing some guys colon (he has colon cancer) and creating a new opening in the side of their stomach where the poor guy will now excrete his bowel needs. Then he rushes to a hernia operation and a biopsy, and a couple of other ones.
After the surgeon is done, then John decides what drugs to administer to wake the guy up... how quickly... 10 seconds or 6 hours. He also can administer an un-paralyzing agent, and a drug that will make you "not-remember" anything that has happened over the last several hours. Again, figuring weight, age, medical history, etc... into the equation. The math that he is doing and formulas that he is using are ones that I used in my advanced math classes back at BYU.
I've learned that during an operation, the thanks go BOTH to the surgeon but also the anethesiologist or CRNA because they are the ones that kept you pain-free and... alive during the whole thing! Right now he is working under other CRNA's and they double check his math and "care plans" before each surgery.
John is doing really well. He scored a 91% on his last "Anatomy and Physiology" test which is AWESOME and well deserved since he spent hours and hours studying for it. He gets stressed each night before he has to go into the hospital just because of all the work he has to do and figure out. But, he loves learning more about the human body. He is a wealth of information about what is happening with different systems of your body at all times. Last night he was trying to explain to me how sound is carried through your bones. It's fun to see him explain something with such passion and excitement yet hard to watch him get stressed. But I know that its something that he must go through, the experience is the greatest teacher. I'm just proud of his dedication and hope that I get lucky enough to have a CRNA like him one day if I ever have to go into the hospital.
Basically, the night before he goes into the hospital, he calls to find out what surgeries he will be a part of the next day. Then he pulls out a 20 pound book where he looks up the surgery and studies all about what the surgeon will be doing. Then he starts on the math. He figures out percentages and ratios of drugs that he will be administering throughout the operation.
Before the operation he meets with the patient and talks to them about everything. He then gives the patient the necessary drugs to put them to sleep and/or a paralzying agent for part of their body. By the ratio and type of drugs he gives, he decides how quickly they need to be put to sleep and how deeply. He figures out body weight, medical history, other drugs in the system... all of this in order to determine how much and of what to give.
During the surgery, the surgeon is completely focused on what procedure he is doing. However, the health and well being of the patient is the complete responsibility of John. He is down by the patients head and he is paying attention to blood pressure, heart rate and breathing. He told me last week that he watches to see if the body is in pain. He said that even if the patient is asleep and can't feel the pain, the "body" can and the way he can tell is by watching what happens to blood pressure or heart rate, etc... So, he watches all that intently and then administers whatever he needs to to make sure that the body is at peace again.
The surgeries he has been a part of are.... ughh... too much for me! Last week he watched a surgeon pull all the guts out of somebody and lay them on their body. Once he looked up and saw a surgeon inserting a huge needle in someone's eye socket. This morning he is doing a surgery where they are removing some guys colon (he has colon cancer) and creating a new opening in the side of their stomach where the poor guy will now excrete his bowel needs. Then he rushes to a hernia operation and a biopsy, and a couple of other ones.
After the surgeon is done, then John decides what drugs to administer to wake the guy up... how quickly... 10 seconds or 6 hours. He also can administer an un-paralyzing agent, and a drug that will make you "not-remember" anything that has happened over the last several hours. Again, figuring weight, age, medical history, etc... into the equation. The math that he is doing and formulas that he is using are ones that I used in my advanced math classes back at BYU.
I've learned that during an operation, the thanks go BOTH to the surgeon but also the anethesiologist or CRNA because they are the ones that kept you pain-free and... alive during the whole thing! Right now he is working under other CRNA's and they double check his math and "care plans" before each surgery.
John is doing really well. He scored a 91% on his last "Anatomy and Physiology" test which is AWESOME and well deserved since he spent hours and hours studying for it. He gets stressed each night before he has to go into the hospital just because of all the work he has to do and figure out. But, he loves learning more about the human body. He is a wealth of information about what is happening with different systems of your body at all times. Last night he was trying to explain to me how sound is carried through your bones. It's fun to see him explain something with such passion and excitement yet hard to watch him get stressed. But I know that its something that he must go through, the experience is the greatest teacher. I'm just proud of his dedication and hope that I get lucky enough to have a CRNA like him one day if I ever have to go into the hospital.
Comments
Wow, I have a new found respect for CRNA's. And I have a hard time filling out my time card for work. I am a dummy!