Working with the robot

Robot really is a misnomer. It is more like remote manipulation. Whatever.
I was in the robot room today. The really small robot room. The room is small, not the robot. About 15 minutes before the day was supposed to start my scrub calls me: the bus is running late, she might be a little late. She gives me a list of things to open, doctor uses the 3rd arm and we need the extra drape and another sealing cap. Got it. I go through the supplies and instruments. Make sure we have everything we need - and we don't. CS sent us two different manipulators, both are large. I need other sizes. No trocars in the supplies and the laparoscopy cart is missing the 5mm sleeves. Call CS, get the other manipulator sizes, get the sleeves from the other laparoscopy cart, open the whole room and my scrub walks in only a few minutes late. She grabs suture and scrubs in. I get her gowned up and go talk to the patient. Sweet couple, nervous but ready for the day. Doctor shows up and that ends my interview.
That really bothers me. I really need to not let it, but it does. Doctor walks in and all conversation stops with anyone else. I understand that the patient knows the doctor better than me, or even our anesthesia staff, but it's just rude. I have important things I need to know!
Get back to the room and get the robot draped and the camera draped. We are golden. Room's ready a few minutes before our goal time. I am even anticipating some of the things I will need. I actually felt really good about the set up. Get the patient in the room and things come to a screeching halt after the surgeon starts. OK, not a screeching halt, but it took a while to make incision. The phrase, I will be rude here, is "Tell her partner she needs to use the strap on more often." Just a joke, but the surgeon had a really difficult time getting the manipulator in the virginal orifice. We all laughed a little to ease the tension. They really are a sweet couple.
Otherwise, the case went well. Got relieved for lunch as we were finishing and came back to chaos. I felt lost. It took me a few minutes to remember all of the things I had to gather for the previous case then I was off and running. Turnover was a little long, but when you have relief staff I expect turnover to run a little longer.
Second case started out great. Then trouble crept in. I looked up from my charting and a fountain of red was giving the surgeon a reason for using the bipolar cautery non-stop. Got that under control, but the adhesions and the bleeding had shaken the surgeon a bit. Called in some help. Ended up with 5 surgeons and finished the procedure as planned.
Really, it was a good day. It's possible it's because the surgeon is really nice, generous with her praise and thanks. Even when things were going tough she was nice. She's awesome with the patients and I am sure she explained to our first patient's partner why it took us a little longer to get done.
Tomorrow is a Whipple. Maybe I can read a bit of my book on making leadership matter for school.