Surgery

Yesterday I got to sit in on a surgery in veterinary services here at work. It was a pretty amazing experience. I got there at around 7 am (got a mocha from Caffino on the way in - needed it badly!), and watched the veterinary techs prep the beagle for surgery. After that, they had me change into scrubs and a mask, and they started the surgery at 9 am. I won't go into the details, but it was pretty cool, as I basically got to stand on the other side of the table from the surgeon and watch everything she was doing. They told me to let them know if I felt light-headed at all in case I was going to faint, but I was actually fine the whole time.

One thing that's amazing is how little blood there is inside the actual body cavity. Aside from a little blood when they first cut the skin, the inside is surprisingly clear. She was doing work on the digestive system, so she showed me the stomach, duodenum, spleen, intestines, and other organs.

It was a pretty long process. We ended up not finishing until about 1:30 PM, and at that point I had to go back to my regular lab, so I wasn't able to see any of the post-op procedures. I was pretty tired! It was definitely worth it though. :) I ended up not leaving work until 6:30 PM, so it was a REALLY long day, hehe.