This area has a lot of diversity. West Indian, Hispanic, Indian, African, Korean, Filipino and an array of Middle Eastern culture. I met a patient from Afghanistan. The patient was older and spoke no English. I could tell she was nervous. She asked her daughter to apologize for not speaking-she was so sweet to be thinking about manners when she was about to undergo surgery. One of her children tried to review a few important words in English, things like 'take a deep breath' and of course 'pain'. I tried to recall something concerning cultural diversity from nursing school. She wore the traditional head covering and I remembered that it was important so I didn't want it to be stained by the Betadine prep or anything else, yet I wasn't sure if I could remove it, so I finally had to ask about removing it and why. I assured her daughter that it would remain in place until after she was asleep and I made it my business to replace it as best I could before she awoke.
The adventures continued as I prepped a patient for a hernia repair, a common surgery that I have prepped for many times before. It was a pretty significant bulge in the groin which had pushed the penis away from midline already, but as I performed the scrub and paint I noticed that things were getting firmer. Oh OK harder! There I said it! Just then the surgeon walks in and says "what's going on in here." I couldn't even say anything. One of the surgical assistants chimed in "I shaved him and he didn't do that for me!" Later the other surgical assistant told me that the surgeon stated I had actually made his job easier...
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