Hysterectomy

>
> I decide to do the surgery outside. It's just to hot inside so I
> borrow our neighbors old table and set it up just outside my front
> porch.
>
> "Should we start an IV?" Sarah asks.
>
> "Nah, just give her an shot of Ketamine, she'll be fine. We'll just
> hold her down well if she starts to move a little...and you can
> always give her another shot."
>
> I hold the patients hand while Sarah gives the Ketamine in the
> muscles of her leg. She squirms and moans but otherwise tolerates
> the shot well. As she starts to drift off to sleep, I inject her
> with an antibiotic.
>
> Jamie and his family and the new doctors, Liz and Tony, help Sarah
> carry the patient and deposit her on the table.
>
> I shave and prep the abdomen, open the box of instruments and put on
> sterile gloves.
>
> "Ok, Allah you hold the left arm, Cory you hold the right. Carson
> if you and Michelle can make sure the legs don't move and are spread
> out well, I think we can get started."
>
> I put the scalpel blade on the handle, grab a compress and start
> cutting through just above her belly button down to her pelvis. I
> get a little off center and at first am a little confused as to
> where I am anatomically. Maybe it's the early evening shadows that
> are playing tricks.
>
> "Does anyone have a head lamp or something?"
>
> "Yeah, here's a brand new headlamp," Liz replies.
>
> Jamie also goes and gets his high powered work flashlight which
> helps a lot. I enter the abdominal cavity.
>
> The uterus is strange. Instead of being short, rounded and compact
> it stretches up through the abdomen and has two long horns. It's
> also very thin. The ovaries are attached at the ends of the horns
> and deep in the belly. I need to do a complete removal of the organs.
>
> "Liz, could you and Tony assist me?"
>
> "Sure, no problem." They both put on disposable gloves and reach in
> to help pull aside intestines and abdominal wall so I can get a
> double clamp on both ovarian stumps. I then clamp the blood vessels
> dangling off the sides of the uterus and place two clamps vagina
> just past the cervix. I cut out the uterus and ovaries together and
> place fixating sutures through the stumps, around and behind the
> clamps and tie everything off.
>
> I close the first layer of abdominal wall.
>
> "Could I get some irrigation, please?"
>
> "Here's a bottle with well water in it, is that ok?" Liz asks.
>
> "Sure, whatever." I reply.
>
> I then close the other layers and the skin with washings with tap
> water in between.
>
> Sarah then brings the plastic funnel and we attach it to our dog,
> Caramel's collar and carry her back into the porch for recovery.
>