Sutures, Shots & IVs

One evening, our good friend Patrick (an amazingly talented surgeon) taught us how to suture. He brought over the different-sized sutures and we practiced stitching up gashes in lemons.

That evening, Karen taught us how to give a proper shot (we practiced on a lemon as well). Just this past Wednesday, I gave Karen several of her weekly shots – good practice!

Last month when we were home visiting family in Michigan, Ryan taught us how to set up an IV. Can you believe we actually practiced on HER?! I got my needle in but then forgot to apply pressure up top and pulled out immediately after I saw the blood (oops!). Stephane gave Ryan an IV through a vein in her hand and did it perfectly!

Thank you to all of our super smart medical friends who are sharing their knowledge with us and making sure we have the skills we need to take care of each other in the boat!

Notes:
– use suture size >=5 on the face
– inject latocaine on the inside/cut of the skin, then on the top of the skin along the edge of the cut
– after latocaine is injected, wait ~20 minutes before suturing
– do not use epinepherine on a digit
– use latocaine without epinephrine
– suture types:
– continuous
– non-continuous – these are better (and the kind we learned). Tie knot (6-8 knots) then first stitch – wrap 2x, then 1x each
– vertical sutures – for large gashes (far-far-near-near)