I went into the OR last week in clinicals. In my surgery, the woman was getting a hysterectomy. (Note: I know nothing about the patient. We were not given any patient information this week, we were just randomly assigned to an operating room and told to watch). 

The procedure only took about an hour and a half. It was a lot shorter than I had thought it would be. Also, something I found interesting was when they opened her up, she didn’t bleed a lot. I forgot to ask the surgeon why that was because I was in awe at the whole thing but if anyone knows and would like to inform me, send a message! I would love to know why that is.

During the procedure they cauterized a lot of fibers around the uterus that was keeping it attached. This was my first time experiencing cauterization. I had heard that it smelled horrible and that it made some people nauseous. Honestly to me it was like something was burning but not flesh. Like if you burnt popcorn or something lol. And the smell went away very fast. But after they removed the uterus and ovaries, they put it in a silver tray and the surgeon came over and told me I could hold it and mess around with it.

It was awesome! So squishy and really warm to the touch. (I’m guessing because it was just removed from a woman’s’ body). There were a few cysts on it. One was the size of a ping pong ball. They were apparently harmless but might have caused some pain. They were a little harder then the actual tissue itself but not too hard. The ovaries are also bigger than I thought they were. They are about 1 inch long. It was half the size of my thumb and the entire uterus was about half the size of my fist. (Tiny!!) For an organ that can cause so much grief to people, I was expecting it to be a little bit bigger lol. 

After I held it I talked with the surgeon for a bit about hysterectomies and why woman chose to get them done. He told me a little bit about what other surgeries were like and how learning to perform surgeries was difficult but amazing. He told me I should consider being a scrub nurse since I was so excited to see the inside of a body. He said many students that come in generally either have to leave or they pass out. I was just so excited. (any Grey’s fans out there?!) 

Yeah that was my experience. I’m slowly dying this week however. It’s finals and I feel so unprepared. I’ll be spending hours in the library. So good luck to any other students out there taking finals as well, we all need it!