Please hold this leg

The first day of my 4 week orthopedic rotation got off to a slow start. Sitting in the waiting room reading mags with the patients waiting for the doctors to come down got boring after one hour. This was thoroughly made up for by the offer of scrubbing in and assisting on a total hip replacement!! It is kind of weird seeing someone else's muscles from the inside, not to mention holding a leg on all sorts of weird and unnatural angles. All this while the surgeon uses more power tools and carpentry equipment that I've ever seen in one place (and yes, I have been to a hardware store..) to give this patient a functional hip.

So there I was, holding on to a leg with one hand and clutching a retractor in my other hand when I started to feel a bit funny. A quick count of hours concluded that lunch was way too long ago....So there we are: fighting a dropping blood sugar on one hand and trying to stem against the surgeon inserting a metal rod in to the leg with all his force. Facing the prospect of falling flat into the surgical site or even worse, drop flat while still holding the leg, forced a quick decicion of piping up and confessing my troubles. In due time it turned out as the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor looking at three copies of the anaesthetist asking me how I was going. Someone else took over my job and I was escorted by a friendly nurse to the nurses room for a cup of tea and some biscuits. Note to self: always keep glucose handy if wanting to play doctor