Arguably, "Grey's Anatomy" is my favorite show. I remember watching it on DVR one day when I was in elementary or middle school, I remember vividly watching the three-part ferry boat accident episode where Meredith almost dies. The next time I watched the show was right after the musical episode aired. I saw promos for the episode and decided that although I didn't know the context of the episode, that I was going to watch. After that, it took me less than two weeks (thanks to many sleepless nights) until I had watched seven seasons of the show and caught up to the live episodes.
When I had surgery, in large part because of the surgeons at Seattle Grace/Seattle Grace Mercy West/Grey Sloan Memorial, I thought I knew what surgery was going to be like. I was wrong.
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1. The surgeon won't necessarily see you before you enter the operating room.
The morning of my operation, I didn't see the doctor until I was wheeled into the operating room. If you watch "Grey's," you know that the patient will always see the surgeon before the procedure in their private room. I saw the surgeon and then soon after that was unconscious. Unlike "Grey's," there were no surgical interns in the room, it was almost like they didn't exist.
2. Unless you're in a surgical center, you won't have a private room.
Unless a patient on the show needs surgery after being admitted to the emergency room, you always see them in a private room with a TV. My surgery was outpatient so I was in the PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit) with only a curtain dividing me from the girl next to me. You share the nurses with the other patients and there is virtually no privacy. You'll also forget that you don't have a private room once you come back and wake up (see no. 6).
3. The operating room will look nothing like the ones on TV.
On the hit show, you know that there are at least two ORs, but you don't see any other ones. In reality, hospitals have so many. I was wheeled into OR 9, a room that probably was the size of my bedroom, if not, a little bit smaller. I was expecting a room that was entirely chrome like the ones that I see on my TV every Thursday night and pretty much everyday when I watch the show on Netflix. I was expecting trays to be set up with scalpels and other surgical tools, but they weren't there. This small room had ugly green walls and a huge flat screen TV mounted on the wall. There was also a dry erase board on one of the walls. I'm pretty sure there was a clock in there too, but they knocked me out quickly, so I can't tell you much more about it.
4. The operating room won't have a gallery where surgical interns, residents, attendants, and fellows can watch your surgery.
I was worried that there would be people watching me besides the surgeon, nurses, and anesthesiologist who obviously needed to be in the room with me. I didn't need people to see me in such a vulnerable state. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone watching me. Although from watching the show, I definitely think that I would like to sit in a gallery and watch a surgery, but then again, maybe it would make me sick. I think I'll just stick to viewing fake procedures on TV.
5. You don't wake up from being under in a completely coherent state.
Apparently I don't do well with anesthesia. My dad told me so, but I didn't want to believe it. I was no David After Dentist, but I was a complete and total b*tch. I didn't think there was a nurse by me and I was super nauseous. I thought I was going to be sick and I started yelling for a nurse. I didn't realize that I was back in the public PACU and not in my own room. After the nausea subsided, I was super hot, sweating through the blankets and sheets that were wrapped around me. I yelled at the nurses to have someone take my socks off. Awkward. I'm not proud of how I acted, but hey, I did apologize and thank the nurse profusely when I was about to leave.
6. Your doctor isn't going to be nearly anywhere as attractive as the docs from ShondaLand.
In real life, you pick your doctor based on skill. As much as I wanted my own Dr. Shepherd (RIP), Dr. Sloan (RIP), Dr. Avery or Dr. Karev, that wasn't realistic, and even if they were real, my parents wouldn't fly me out to Seattle, when there is a hospital a few minutes away in my town. Although I'm sure I would have fought them on that.
