'Uy, may case ka na, sabi ni Ma’am. Scrub na!’
But I just got here! Gosh!
I enter the room with my hands up and grab a green gown. No one has their gowns on yet. Ma’am CI (It’s positively NOT Ma’am Manzarate.) is in the room with me now.
I put my gown on. I see my gloves - 6 ½. With my hand still inside my gown I grab the right glove by the cuff. I try to don my glove. What the? Disposables? I struggle.
Ma’am came near so I had to turn to the other side so she wouldn’t see that I was struggling. My right hand came out of the gown. I pulled on my sleeve using my left and ungowned or ungloved hand. I’m officially unsterile now.
I manage to get my right hand gloved. What the heck? Di pa ako nagscscrub ah! Gah! Then my left. With a little less struggling. Then, when I hold my hands high, I notice that my gloves have rips all over. I need a new pair. Sheesh.
My circulating student nurse looks like Alyssa Habaluyas, a classmate from Sec 1-10.
‘Alyssa, pakuha naman ako ng 6 ½. Alam mo naman saan diba?’
‘Uh… oo.’
‘Ok, pabilisan ah.’
Then she’s gone. She came back successful.
‘Pabuksan nalang yung paper.’
‘Ganyan lang.’
And I got the left glove.
And she grabbed the right without care of the word sterile.
‘WAH! What did you do?!’
Then I went to Ma’am CI.
‘Ma’am! Impossible po circulating ko. Pwede po pachange?’
‘No, you make that work.’
Okaay… Then I turn to Alyssa. She’s heartbroken. I think she heard me. And I follow her running to the instruments room.
‘Ok look. Look at me!’ I grab her face to make her look. I’m totally unsterile now.
‘It’s not you ok. Basta, we need to focus. Now, get those gloves. Ok good. Let’s go back na.’
Suddenly, there’s a hoard of people at the window of our OR suite. But I managed to get in. Inside I saw that the operation was mid-way already.
I wait anxiously for Alyssa to appear from the crowd. Nada. Oh! There she is! Hurry up, I plead. Nada. What’s taking her?!
Somehow, my patient is taken from the room and I’m still waiting for my gloves. The crowd disappears and so does Alyssa. Sam is beside me studying a book.
‘Ano nangyari sa pasyente ko?’
‘Huh? Di ko alam. Sorry.’
Oh my crap. What the heck just happened. I have to find that patient!
And I walk outside. Nada.
I remember something about the PACU being on the 2nd floor above the OR so I go up. And I see a familiar site of elevators and more elevators labeled out-patient and in-patient. I’ve seen this in another dream before. I didn’t know if I should enter it. I’m still wearing my green gown by the way.
A bunch of people come up the 2nd floor using the same escalator as I did. They chatter. And they enter the room labeled ‘Family and Friends.’ I get to peek inside and I see lots of ‘pan-to’s’ and just a few people. It was like they were ready to have party.
I turn to the right. That was the only way left to go. From a far, I see restaurants and a game center much like Timezone. I turn right again and I see huge escalators. As in 3-4 floor escalators.
And then I see Mimi standing behind the railings. BEHIND the railings of an escalator.
‘Anong ginagawa mo diyan? Baka mahulog ka!’
‘Ah hindi, wala. May inaabangan kasi ako.’
‘Sino?’
‘Uh basta.’
‘?’
‘Sige na nga lalabas na.’
And she got out.
‘Kasi ganito yun’ she blurted and grabbed my arm. We started walking towards the PACU.
‘Uy Mimi!’ It was a friend of hers, male, and a lot more following him, 4-5 I think. All male.
‘Nako, sila na nga yan.’
‘Ah kayo pala ah,’ I said, ‘kayo kasi eh kayo kasi [kaya nasa dangerous na lugar si Mimi kanina!]’ Simultaneously I spanked everyone’s shoulders. I think I sort of forgot that I still hadn’t taken my gown off. From my side vision, I notice another one of the boys coming up from the nearby escalator.
Then I turn towards him and said, ‘Sino pa ba di ko napapalo?’
No one replies.
‘Sige na nga ok na yan. Baka madoble pa.’
And I go back to Mimi.
Then I wake up.
Weird dream. Yet so vivid. :|
This is what I get for thinking about the OR so much. :|
