procedures

It was a better night, I got to write up one of the new admits - vaginal bleeding. Not too complicated. I don't know where all the time went becuase reall did nothing else but sit and wait for her labs and US to come back. During that time my resident told me I could get a chance to do a Lumbar puncture on a woman with a suspected subarachnoid hemorrahage. He asked if I'd like to watch or just do it. Attempting to break free of the timid shroud that overcomes me, I said yes i'd like to try.
two hours later I was gowned up, wearing sterile gloves and a huge mask shield. My resident positioned the patient, betadined it all. I layed out the sterile field and then he gave me the needle to anesthesize the area. I injected all of the lidocaine. Then I got the lp syringe and slowly guided it through checking for csf after about 3cm. I repeated this over and over, removing the needle then reentering. At times my resident was engaged inanother conversation not even looking at what I was doing. I thought I hit bone and my resident checked it, and indeed it was not bone, I had got it. He handed me the manometer and we measured the pressure. At this point i started to feel nauseous and light headed. I struggled to hold the manometer straight as I felt I was going to keel over. Got throught it and he handed me the vile to collect the csf fluid, drop by drop. At this point I could no longer take it, I told him I felt sick and he said go ahead and step back get some fresh air. Which I did. I felt my body gettign extremely hot and then cold sweat. I stepped out, pulled off the gown and went to splash water on my face in the bathroom. I wasn't scared, I wasn't grossed out, I wasn't nervous - I don't know what came over me at that moment. I stepped back into the room and even the patients daughter asked me if I was ok. I did it. The resident said good job. hopefully the next time will be easier