Hey, all,
I’m a total needlephobe who dislikes spilling blood. I don’t like icky things, and that’s one of the reasons I was afraid I couldn’t handle med school originally (as though I couldn’t get over it, blah).
But yesterday, I started my first human dissection. Just wanted to encourage you all that even though WATCHING a dissection is rough (youtube it sometime), DOING a dissection is a piece of cake. Well. Not from a technical standpoint (since you might scratch yourself with the backside of a scalpel), but you get my drift.
Long story short: If you don’t like icky things, you’ll get over it real fast, no worries. Just lie down and put your feet up if you’re going to pass out. Nobody wants to faceplant into a corpse.
“Just lie down and put your feet up if you’re going to pass out. Nobody wants to faceplant into a corpse.”
LOL
Now, where would be a good place to lie down when you’re in lab? On my chair maybe? Then again I might fall over and there goes my occipital lobe and I won’t have to worry about seeing blood anymore because I won’t be able to see.
“Funny post! I am a reformed needle-phobe myself. Well, mostly anyway. Lumbar punctures still get to me when I watch them, but traumas and watching other procedures are usually fine so far. Although I did get a little light headed watching a trauma surgeon stitch up a guys face for an hour the other night. I’m slowly figuring out that it’s good to shift your weight and your gaze as you’re standing there watching for long periods of time. I ended up excusing myself to get some water and a short walk, then came back into the trauma bay again. That made me feel better, and after that I was ok.
It’s pretty cool overcoming fears/phobias like that, isn’t it?!”
Our anatomy lab has some chairs out in the hall and they recommended going out there to recuperate if necessary.
Kate
- nnylacire Said:
Although I did get a little light headed watching a trauma surgeon stitch up a guys face for an hour the other night.
I can relate. A really talented general surgeon took me in to watch some procedures. The colonoscopy was about as exciting as it sounds, the hernia op was pretty cool, and the hand tumor removal was neat . . . but then he got to removing the tumor from the face.
Now, if the man were asleep, this probably wouldn't bother me so much, but he was just sedated. Flaying the face open wasn't too bad. The bleeding was a little unexpected, but that didn't cause me problems. I felt faint when the doctor brushed a motor nerve with the cautery tool. The pt's face twitched and the surgeon said, "Oh, must not have numbed that one up."
Almost lost my cookies over that one.