by Ben Soloria
One of the lessons from The Navy Hospital Corps School that I attended was, to always check post op patients' dressings for integrity and evidence of abnormal drainage or bleeding. So, after recording the vital signs of the first post-op patient I had on my first day of ward orientation at a female multi-service unit at the Naval Regional Medical Center, Guam, I cautiously informed my patient that I would be checking her dressing. I was amazed how rapidly she came out of sedation upon hearing me. "What dressing?", the now wide-awake and shocked-looking brunnette asked me. Again, with the most reassuring tone of voice I could muster, I told her, " You just got out of surgery. I need to check your dressing to make sure its intact and check if I need to reinforce it."
"But I don't have any dressing," the bewildered patient protested. I felt
challenged but determined to do what I believe was the right thing to do for the patient. Not to antagonize her further, I modified my lingo and said to her, "Okay, let me just check the surgical site then to make sure everything's fine. Could you
help me?" I asked with humility. "It's between my legs, " she directed me as she parted her long shapely lower extremities to reveal a very private part of her anatomy that I least expected to be the surgical site. To my disbelief, she was right. She had no dressing. I wondered. Gently, I pulled her hospital gown to cover her up and calmly, I told her, "Okay, it looks fine." Just like that. I thanked her and
rushed out of her room.
I grabbed her chart to find out more of her medical history. She was in for removal of Bartholin's Cyst!
P.S. Bartholin's Cyst is an abnormality of the bartholin glands of the
vaginal wall. Therefore, because of its location, a dressing is not
indicated. ( I could only imagine that if that orifice was packed with
gauze, it would have looked like a mouth stuffed with gauze.)
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