Can You Spot the Site Marking?
It's hiding somewhere among all those tattoos.
I
went to pre-op to get my patient. I read the consent: "Left
carpal tunnel and release of ulnar nerve entrapment."
Sounds easy enough. Descending the checklist, I ini-
tialed everything as I assessed the patient. When I came
to the surgical site box, I stepped to the left of the
stretcher and asked the patient if I may see his left arm.
I gasped when he pulled it out from under the blanket —
his arm was covered in tattoos from his wrist to his ear. I
squinted as I searched for the site marking, but I couldn't
make it out in the colorful camouflage of ink. "Oh, now I
see it," I said after a pre-op nurse pointed to the surgeon's
initials. "This is like Where's Waldo?"
• • •
Some people work harder getting out
of work then actually doing any.
• • •
Don't you just love nursing slang? Some of my favorites:
• BBL. Belly button lint. "You're gonna need a Q-tip
to get that BBL out."
• Q. Anesthetized patient with mouth open and
tongue hanging out. "Oh look, he's got the Q."
• CRI. Cranial rectum inversion. "Was your head all
the way up or just half way up when you (insert
lame-brained action here)?"
• GOK. God only knows. "Is Dr. Jekyll gonna be in
one of his moods again? GOK."
• • •
Sometimes it's hard to decipher a colleague's thick
1 0 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A Y 2 0 1 8
Behind Closed Doors
Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR
