The new job has been going well. I have done my 2 weeks of classroom orientation... 1 week in pre-op, 1 week in post-op, and today I started in the room side by side with another nurse, the doctor, the CRNA, and the endo tech. I have been itching to get back there since this is what is going to be hardest in the whole learning process.
Our second patient we were having a bit of trouble, her airway was terrible, the doctor couldn't visualize anything, and the patient was moving her arms around... so here I am trying to help keep her arms out of the doctors way when he looks me in the eye and tells me to quickly get the esophageal extender. I haven't the slightest clue what the hell an esophageal extender is, but with a smile I say, "no problem doc, where do I go?" He tells me go to the front desk and ask them, they will get it for me. And so like a frantic woman I go searching. 10 seconds go by before I just go and ask another nurse to help me find it...
I find one and ask her, she just busts out laughing. She asks me who told me to get it and I tell her the doctor, and she is in tears now. I realize at this point there is no such thing as an esophageal extender. I have been PUNKED. Or as they say in Endoscopy, "YOU HAVE BEEN GI'd!!!"
I sat down in complete defeat. I wasn't so much mad about the prank, but about the fact that I don't know what I am doing right now. She hugged me and told me that they do it to everyone, and she had been GI'd when she started. I pulled myself together and walked back into the room, knowing the way I would react to the situation I had just been put in would make me or break me in this new position. I announced, "VERRRRRRRYYYYYYY FUNNNYYYYY" when I walked back in, as everyone laughed and laughed. I looked at the doctor and said "I will remember that!" He told me since you have been GI'd it is done, it won't happen again. He went thru it, everyone else in the room went thru it, and if I didn't go thru it, it just wouldn't be the right initiation to the GI lab.
*GI stands for gastrointestinal
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