Visit to the Minor OT

Never it occurred to me that assisting a minor procedure could be so much fun.

It began with the very 1st case in Ophthal opd when a young girls enters the room with a Chalazion in her upper eye lid (a painless swelling). That day was meant to be special coz our senior who consulted the case had sent her off with some medicines but she again showed up after an hour or so and i knew this was a sign for us to operate her. A chance for me 
to learn to excise a chalazion (observe only of course), and for our 1st year resident to learn it from the consultant how to create a grand level of comedy in the minor OT.

As soon as the patient turns up, without waisting anymore time i run to sir who was busy downloading meera bai bhajans from youtube, and pursued him for operating. Once he said yes without wasting any time i rushed to minor OT (dilating pupils of few patients to be reviewed) and got their clearance. While sir was checking out the patients in the ward i helped myself to fetch the instruments required for the operation.

"Yes the instruments are ready for use, are you about to start?" asked the sister in charge. If i'm here then definitely we are about to start... why else would i be running up and down three stories then - i thought to myself but still said "Let me confirm with sir first" and i was glad that i said so because on my return with the news of available instruments
sir asked me to proceed with the blood investigations required before any procedure first.

And the chase begins as soon as the patient returned with her blood reports at 2:45 in the noon. Time is important to mention for that our OPD timings are only up till 3:00 o'clock in the winters. Sir said "No, not possible today. Call them day after" as next day was a holiday. Patient party requested for that day itself because they had come a long distance and were staying in a hotel who's bill they'll have to pay for another two days. Finally sir agreed and i 
sprinted towards the major OT to bring the weapons of 'Chalazion's DOOM'

"Sister please give me the 3 instruments i had requested earlier" i said, but this wasn't her. "What instruments?" came the reply. Then i again explained the whole thing to her and was asked to follow her after a long wait as she didn't knew which were the keys to the sterilization room. I followed her upstairs then through a large hallway to a room
very simillar looking to our existing OT rooms, when i realized this was a another OT which is just locked away unused. 

There inside that room was a table in the center and on that table was a glass box. In that box there were ophthal instruments. "Which ones do you want?" asked the sister. How would i know??? ok fine i had seen one of them before but didn't know about the other two, to my surprise nor did the sister. So now by this time i was googling for the instruments
picture while sir, resident and another intern and the patient party all waiting for me in the minor OT to appear with the instruments which i was to see for the first time in my life. Later on i  did discover the fact that they were anxiously looking for me and desperately trying to call me without knowing my number!!! i wonder how. But anyways, finally all the
three instruments were in my hand and after nearly 20 mins i was pushing my self through corridors towards minor OT.

If you are enjoying this then please let me tell you that the fun part is yet to come. I entered the minor OT where sir and junior resident were preparing. Next to them was a nurse standing and watching them in a somewhat confused manner. I Could understand why, as sir stammers while speaking and she wasn't able to understand anything. Lying on the bed was
the young girl who seemed a bit scared and was obvious. "Sister  give me the drapes" said sir. Sister looking at him confused. "Give him the  cloth to cover the patient" i said "Oh you mean eye towel!" exclaimed the sister (smart one, didn't see that coming) "Yes yes eye towel & towel clip also" sir continued in his stammering voice.

Meanwhile JR checked the girl for anaesthesia reaction on her forearm and me marking the site to calculate the erythma if any. Once it was eshtablished that patient will not react to LA sir simply filled her eyelid with lignocain (local anaesthesia).

The struggle begins - when sir asked the JR to clamp the chalazion. The JR being her first time was extra careful with the patients eye and after few tries couldn't clamp her where entered Arnold Swatzinegar of terminator 2 'our sir' and just like terminator who will save John Conners and care for no one else - sir started clamping the chalazion with no care
of where he's going or what he's clamping. On the top of that the patient is shouting & crying her lungs out - "it's paining it's paining" she shouted. "Why is it still paining?" said sir and injected some more lignocain in her eyelid and it all flushed out. It was totally unnessary as the girl was only scared and not under pain of any kind.

Finally we were able to tame the lion - clamp the chalazion that is. Now a incision was made and all the puss was scooped out. Now sir said "we will cautery the point" and turned to sister "give me the spirit lamp" Sister again looking at me, no not because she didn't understand sir but because of the weird fact as what he was asking for?!!! 'Spirit Lamp c'mon man i haven't seen spirit lamps since my chemistry lab in schools. So obsolate. Nor did we have one there. Then what to do? 
"There's a cautrey machine here" sister said "I don't know to use one" came the reply.
Holding the patients hand (i  had to coz she was again and again touching her eye) i asked my fellow intern to run outside and fetch us a bundle of matchsticks. Witout loosing any time he left the room and before blinking to the eye he returned with a packet full. Sister still confused what to do with them as sir was asking her to light up a gauge piece soaked up
in spirit. I don't know what it was - sir's stammering accent or a really dumb nurse who made me watch and enjoy the moment without interrupting. As i continued to watch - sister is once handing over the spirit bottle to sir, sir holding the bottle, then she is taking out a spirit swab, taking back the bottle and handing over a gauge piece to sir. Then she started cleaning the matchstick with the spirit swab and was finally instructed  to stop by the JR who i suppose was done enjoying the confusion. She asked the nurse to light up the swab and the dumb nurse did so holding the swab in her hand and most immediately it caught fire, all of it & the nurse dropped the swab on the floor of the OT. Our terminator oops i mean sir, without loosing anytime ducked and started heating the cautery on fire and cauterized the chalazion scar.
Finally ointment applied and the eye dressed by pressure bandaging the patient was let off with proper advice and antibiotics.
All the above mentioned events occurred within 20 mins and will last in my memory a lifetime. 

Medicine field give you something new to learn each day, something new to explore with each case and largest of all adds a
meaning to your profession.... apart from all the humor.
looking forward to more fun field experiences which will one day make me a successful doctor even in handling the most treacherous situations.