Ophthamology Surgery Team

Monday, July 19, 2010
This morning, I got to walk patients to Dr. Don, an optometrist, for a check-up and then back to their beds. I enjoyed leading the practically blind little women back and forth, trying to get them to position their foreheads correctly in the eye machine, and constantly repeating “No se mueva. Por favor, no mueva los ojos.” Haha, some just couldn’t sit still.

In the afternoon, I got to shadow in the OR. We had an amazing patient named Cesar. He was a Guatemalan, living in the U.S. He flew here on a hope and a prayer that he would be a surgery candidate. He was 47 and already had bad cataracts in both eyes. He was a recent believer, after he entered a church and told the people, “I don’t need food. I need God.” He could hardly see. He spoke English well, and jovially carried on with the doctor while the operation was going on. When the doctor finished, he sat Cesar up in bed, removed the drape, and asked Cesar to look ahead. He looked at Lauren and said, “You’re so beautiful!” and looked at Cal and said, “And you’re so handsome!” It was an amazing miracle to witness this once blind man, seeing for the first time in a long time! When Cesar commented on how handsome Cal was, the doctor joking said, “Oh no! I must have put the wrong lens in!” It was one of the best surgeries to be a part of.

Soon afterward though, we had a patient that was a very difficult case. She was very anxious. She seemed claustrophobic underneath the drape and would not stop moving around. While the doctor’s scapel was in her eye, she squirmed and reached her hand up to her face! We pleaded with her to sit still, but she moaned and loudly complained about the pain, even though the doctor gave her three times the normal amount of local anesthesia. She was so squirmy, we had to have two people hold her arms down, one hold her legs down, and one hold her head down. And even then, the doctor had to pull out early, without inserting the implant. He removed the cataract, but couldn’t replace the lens because she would have jumped off the table in pain. It was a very tense case, and we were all glad when it was over.

In one day, I experienced the blessings AND the hardships that a surgeon goes through each day.


Thursday, July 22, 2010
Last night, every time I closed my eyes, I saw the replay of a cataract eye surgery … it was strange! I guess I had just watched a ton of them!

Yesterday, I got to help Dr. Don Loconte with pre-op and post-op consults. I had the best time! I think I want to be a type of doctor that gets to sit down one on one with her patients in an office. I got to translate between the doctor and the patient. I got to tell the patients where to position their hands, feet, chin, and forehead, in order to look into the eye piece machine for Dr. Don. This was quite difficult. And trying to get the patients to look straight ahead and not look around… wow, tough. I probably said, “Mire recto,” “No mueva la cabeza,” and “Mire la luz” over a hundred times. I would say, “Look at the light,” and some people would look all around. One person even closed their eyes tight! Oh my gosh. Yes, it was frustrating, especially for the doctor, because we couldn’t get good readings on their eyes, but I was getting SO tickled with each patient! I loved to just sit and talk to them before and after the consult. So many interesting personalities!

I got to instruct the patients on how to use the big black spoon to cover one eye and read from the visual acuity chart. You wouldn’t believe some of the things people do! They cover one eye with the spoon. Then, we say, “Now cover the other eye,” and they use their hand to cover the other eye ALSO! And then they say, “I can’t see anything.” Haha!