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] Date Posted:11:16:14 10/31/09 Sat In reply to:
Carol
's message, "Unnecessary exposure" on 16:45:20 10/21/09 Wed
A few years back we had a brief debate here about how much area should be shaved in preparation for abdominal surgery.
Some nurses and aides chimed in, and what they said may surprise some of us.
The posters eventually ended up discussing whether or not the scrotum should be included in the prep. Some of the nurses and aides said they always shave the scrotum because it has been their experience that post-operative infections are fewer if they do that.
Another one said that unless they are short of time, they prefer to shave the scrotum just to be as thorough as possible. Others agreed that if the prep is going down to mid-thigh, it makes no sense to skip over the scrotum.
Only one aide or nurse said the scrotum is difficult and time-consuming to include, so she does it very seldom.
The telling point in the discussion, and the big surprise for me, was the between-the-lines revelation that these women have the authority to decide about shaving there.
So never mind saying that a mistake was made by the girl who prepped the man who complained above about itching.
She decided, for whatever reason, to shave the entire area down there, including the scrotum.
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[> [> Subject: Surpised, But They Have Some Good Points
Date Posted:11:18:22 10/31/09 Sat
I was surprised to learn that the person who does the prep has some leeway about exactly what she should shave. But she undoubtedly has a good reason for whatever she decides.
Why even discuss it? Let the nurse, aide, or technician do what they think is best for the patient at the time.
Date Posted:11:21:13 10/31/09 Sat
The nurses and aides assigned to prep a patient do have to exercise their own judgement about the extent of the shave.
Some surgeons have very specific preferences so the prep must be done the way he/she wants it done. Other surgeons let the staff take care of it.
The staff wants to be sure the surgeon can do his/her job smoothly. There is nothing more embarrassing than to have a surgeon stand back and call for an OR nurse to finish the prep right then and there.
To make sure this does not happen, there is a tendency to sometimes prep a wider area than the patient might expect.
This results in patients believing that the nurse or aide shaved more of him than was really necessary. We see posts with that complaint on this board and others.
Why not let the nurses and aides do their jobs based on their own judgement and experience? The main concern of everyone involved is a suiccessful operation without infection of the site later. That's what the prep is for, so let them do what they think is best.
Date Posted:11:23:27 10/31/09 Sat
The Doctor did all my shaving when I was out and very little. I asked her in her office how much she needed shaved and she said don't worry I'll do it and only where I need to because the scraped skin can get infected.
Date Posted:13:04:24 10/31/09 Sat
The diagrams mentioned above show that an abdominal prep
covers the area from the nipple-line to mid-thigh. The scrotum is within that shaded area, so it should be shaved.
Sometimes the nurse or aide decides not to include the scrotum in the shave for reasons of their own. It might be skipped if the incision is up near the ribs, as in a gallbladder operation or another procedure above the navel.
But it surely should be shaved for any procedure lower than that, like a hernia of the lower abdomen or an appendectomy.
Generally, they should shave the scrotum every time, since it is part of the abdominal prep standard procedure, and most of them do include it. They really have no authority to change the procedure, but as we have seen above, some of them make the decision to omit the scrotum, anyhow.
Date Posted:00:31:10 11/01/09 Sun
A few years ago I was getting shaved for a hernia exam by a young woman who was quite pretty but I suspect new to the job. As she was shaving my pubic area and scrotum she handled my penis throughout the process. Not only that, she handled it exactly as if she intended to masturbate it, with her fingers all around it. If you can believe it, she did all this fairly innocently. Somehow I got the impression that was how she treated a boyfriend's penis and she was just used to holding them that way. She was as I said pretty but I would guess no more than average intelligence. I got an erection from the process, which did not seems to faze her one bit! In fact it was as if she expected it. On the other hand she took no obvious pleasure from it, nor do I think she was concealing any. And she wasn't the least irritated by it either. It was just as if she expected me to get an erection from the get-go and was handling my penis as she would any erect penis she was familiar enough with to masturbate. She never did that to me of course. Just left it standing high and proud as she wiped me off afterwards and draped the sheet back over my "tent'. Never said a word about it either. It was like it happened that way every time she shaved a guy, and for all I know, it did.
It was a remarkable and noteworthy experience.
I gather the diagrams and notes they use to teach women how to do shaving like this do not mention erections or penises and how to hold or not hold them. So the women make up their own rules based on their own experiences and go about their business. I think that young woman entered my hospital room with the firm idea that I would get an erection during the procedure. And I did. Sort of like the old saying -- "10,000 years of human experience proves conclusively that beating a tom-tom when the sun sets will cause it to rise again the next morning."
