Is surgery gross, at first, to everyone???

[jeff25]

I heard that during the clinical years, I would have to do surgery even if I planned on becoming a cardiologist[not surgeon]. Do many people have funny feelings inside before ever doing a surgery?
I feel like I would get the chills from cutting someone's skin.
Does anyone else feel the same way. Do you get over this fast after doing a surgery or 2? Am I alone with this feeling of grossness?

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[footcramp]

girls have cooties

 

[TheThroat]

No you are alone.



Just kidding.

I have seen med students have to leave the OR sometimes. I have seen a med student even pass out in clinic.

 

[neutropeniaboy]

I heard that during the clinical years, I would have to do surgery even if I planned on becoming a cardiologist[not surgeon]. Do many people have funny feelings inside before ever doing a surgery?
I feel like I would get the chills from cutting someone's skin.
Does anyone else feel the same way. Do you get over this fast after doing a surgery or 2? Am I alone with this feeling of grossness?

Blood never bothered me. The smell of burning flesh bothered me for a while as a medical student -- only in the sense that it was an awful smell, but not nauseating. I've never seen anyone pass out or get sick, except for once when I was a sub-i in plastics and the 3rd year got presyncopal during a liposuction. She sat down for a while and then was better.

 

[Dunce]

I heard that during the clinical years, I would have to do surgery even if I planned on becoming a cardiologist[not surgeon]. Do many people have funny feelings inside before ever doing a surgery?
I feel like I would get the chills from cutting someone's skin.
Does anyone else feel the same way. Do you get over this fast after doing a surgery or 2? Am I alone with this feeling of grossness?

If you can handle Gross Anatomy you should stand a fair chance of doing alright in the OR.
Burning flesh is a distinct smell that can be troublesome, but it really isn't all that bad. If it's the blood that gets to you, then the OR is not the only place that you will get those funny feelings inside.

 

[Debridement]

I heard that during the clinical years, I would have to do surgery even if I planned on becoming a cardiologist[not surgeon]. Do many people have funny feelings inside before ever doing a surgery?
I feel like I would get the chills from cutting someone's skin.
Does anyone else feel the same way. Do you get over this fast after doing a surgery or 2? Am I alone with this feeling of grossness?

For a while it's odd.... then....

Bovie = hunger stimulator

 

[Samoa]

I heard that during the clinical years, I would have to do surgery even if I planned on becoming a cardiologist[not surgeon]. Do many people have funny feelings inside before ever doing a surgery?
I feel like I would get the chills from cutting someone's skin.
Does anyone else feel the same way. Do you get over this fast after doing a surgery or 2? Am I alone with this feeling of grossness?

Generally, med students don't actually cut anything but sutures. You may get to close some surgical wounds, drive the camera for laparoscopy, suction, irrigate or hold a retractor, but you'll have lots of supervision, even for that stuff, and absolutely no one is going to let you actually do the operation.

I found gross anatomy to be far more unpleasant than surgery.

 

[neutropeniaboy]

Generally, med students don't actually cut anything but sutures. You may get to close some surgical wounds, drive the camera for laparoscopy, suction, irrigate or hold a retractor, but you'll have lots of supervision, even for that stuff, and absolutely no one is going to let you actually do the operation.

I wouldn't say that.

For a lot of surgeries, it's been just me, the med student, and the attending talking on the phone. I let a med student do a trach with me while I retracted. (I entered the airway, but she did everything else.) I took a med student through a lymph node biopsy not too long ago. I make all of them do the direct laryngoscopy and try the bronchoscopy. With sinus surgery, I make them drive the scope through and take a look.

It really depends on who's in the room, how competent the student appears to be, and how patient the resident's willing to be. Of course, when there are junior residents in the room, the med student pretty much retracts and cuts sutures. If I take a junior through a neck dissection, often the med student uses the bovie, ties small blood vessels, and cuts tissue.

There's no point to doing a surgery rotation if you can't actually do some surgery. Watching and learning is critical, but you gotta have some play time.

 

[Turbinate]

That just goes to show the two kinds of med schools out there. I attend one with a big name, and our surgery rotations work exactly as Samoa described, word for word. I have never experienced anything in the OR like that which neutropeniaboy describes.

 

[neutropeniaboy]

That just goes to show the two kinds of med schools out there. I attend one with a big name, and our surgery rotations work exactly as Samoa described, word for word. I have never experienced anything in the OR like that which neutropeniaboy describes.

That's the way my med school was, and I hated it. I was older than some of the residents when I was a student, and I was a pretty competent guy. I had basic (real basic) understanding of the case, and it frustrated me that residents wouldn't even let me do simple things.

That trach I described: 90 pound man, and the airway was practically 2 cell layers deep to the skin. Are you telling me that a 3rd year student can't make a simple 1 inch incision or take a Crile clamp and do a little spreading?? It's really ridiculous. How difficult is it to shove a laryngoscope into someone's mouth? Some of these things are just not that tough, and a confident, competent resident should be able to safely let medical students do a lot more than just cut sutures. Beyond that, it's a matter of time.

I don't know. I love being in the O.R., and teaching is really great.

I will say this, I can spot a medical student who has no interest in surgery before they even scrub into a case. I'm sure the willingness of a resident or attending changes once they know a student is motivated.

 

[TxMed]

I heard that during the clinical years, I would have to do surgery even if I planned on becoming a cardiologist[not surgeon]. Do many people have funny feelings inside before ever doing a surgery?
I feel like I would get the chills from cutting someone's skin.
Does anyone else feel the same way. Do you get over this fast after doing a surgery or 2? Am I alone with this feeling of grossness?

back in the ole anatomy lab you could always tell when people got comfortable. about the same time that "how much would it cost for you to eat this..." started being played. what a simpler time.

tm

 

[MossPoh]

I'm not a med student (yet) but have sat in the OR for a number of hours. The cutting, and even the burning flesh didn't bother me. (possibly because i really don't have much of a sense of smell) The most horrid smell for me is tied between the football locker room and rotting corpse. I really wish I was joking. Not EVERYONE is squeemish but it is not a bad thing not like it...There certaintly are people that have grown into it but the large majority of people I have met...and I do ask docs questions like this... practically fell in love with surgery at first site. They get a feeling that is hard to describe...sometimes that feeling is fainting but that can be attributed to dehydration, those lights, and the general sensory overload while retracting all day...I've noticed a lot of med students stress about this kind of stuff as if they feel they are going to become lesser docs because the cutting makes them uncomfortable. It is just a facet of medicine. There are areas where such scenes are few and far between....try to get used to it..and if not? big woop....surgery isn't your bag...somethign else is.

 

[iliacus]

the only thing that has truly grossed me out so far is the bodily fluids that follow the baby after child birth. Also, the mommy poo that sometimes comes out...like soft serve ice cream with a terrible smell.

 

[Turbinate]

Let me guess, you're male. (I won't dignify you with the word man.) Your last comment was inappropriate, and if female defecation really strikes you as something so much more foreign than your own ****, maybe you should stick to treating only male patients in the future.

 

[iliacus]

Let me guess, you're male. (I won't dignify you with the word man.) Your last comment was inappropriate, and if female defecation really strikes you as something so much more foreign than your own ****, maybe you should stick to treating only male patients in the future.

If a man takes a dump point blank in front of me I'll GLADLY send you a PM telling you how disgusted I was. Being female has nothing do with it...poop is poop regardless of the gender of the individual it may orginate from and I don't feel the least bit guilty for finding it an unpleasant experience.

 

[Turbinate]

I apologize for the overexcited nature of my previous post, Iliacus. I understand now. Part of it was also that I have seen how humiliated and ashamed patients feel when they have uncontrollable bowel movements in the hospital; further, I have watched really awesome nurses wipe patients' butts clean without any disgust in their faces or voices. So I don't see any role for disgust about bodily functions in the hospital. It reminds me of that scene in "All Quiet on the Western Front" where the soldiers don't care about taking a dump in front of each other anymore.

 

[neutropeniaboy]

I'm just bothered by the phrase "mommy poo." It sounds very 3rd grade.

I apologize for the overexcited nature of my previous post, Iliacus. I understand now. Part of it was also that I have seen how humiliated and ashamed patients feel when they have uncontrollable bowel movements in the hospital; further, I have watched really awesome nurses wipe patients' butts clean without any disgust in their faces or voices. So I don't see any role for disgust about bodily functions in the hospital. It reminds me of that scene in "All Quiet on the Western Front" where the soldiers don't care about taking a dump in front of each other anymore.

 

[iliacus]

I'm just bothered by the phrase "mommy poo." It sounds very 3rd grade.

Good lord in heaven...How about parapartum bowel evacuation? I'm sure all the the little boys with sever combined immune diffeciency would find your screen name offensive. What about all the children with sever neutropenia that have to live in a bubble...Don't you remember the bubble boy and all the trouble he had to endure when George refused to accept moops as a correct answer and popped the boy's bubble? You're so insensitive

 

[TheThroat]

Good lord in heaven...How about parapartum bowel evacuation? I'm sure all the the little boys with sever combined immune diffeciency would find your screen name offensive. What about all the children with sever neutropenia that have to live in a bubble...Don't you remember the bubble boy and all the trouble he had to endure when George refused to accept moops as a correct answer and popped the boy's bubble? You're so insensitive

That was a classic episode.

 

[TheThroat]

I'm just bothered by the phrase "mommy poo." It sounds very 3rd grade.

I remember one resident always calling out, "Here comes Mr. Stinky!"

Of course, on one of my first deliveries, I delivered the child, only to show him to the mom, with a poop smear on his forehead.

 

[peter1278434]

the only thing that has truly grossed me out so far is the bodily fluids that follow the baby after child birth. Also, the mommy poo that sometimes comes out...like soft serve ice cream with a terrible smell.

If you like the bodily fluids that follow the baby after child birth, as well as the mommy poo that comes out like soft serve ice cream with a terrible smell...YOU will LOVE www.all-out-motorsports.com

 

[beastmaster]

I've assisted on many surgeries throughout my MS3 year. Never had any funny feelings.

And then my OBGYN attending let me do a suction D&C. Scraping the endometrium was perhaps the most disgusting feeling I've had all year. Even though you can't see it, you can feel the tissue being scraped, and thats after you've suction out little baby parts with your attending adding "oh look there's the head, there's the arm..."

 

[5150]

I've assisted on many surgeries throughout my MS3 year. Never had any funny feelings.

And then my OBGYN attending let me do a suction D&C. Scraping the endometrium was perhaps the most disgusting feeling I've had all year. Even though you can't see it, you can feel the tissue being scraped, and thats after you've suction out little baby parts with your attending adding "oh look there's the head, there's the arm..."

That is absolutely disturbing.... and you're talking to someone who gets hungry after smelling the bovie work some tissue.

 

[musicalmedicine]

That's the way my med school was, and I hated it. I was older than some of the residents when I was a student, and I was a pretty competent guy. I had basic (real basic) understanding of the case, and it frustrated me that residents wouldn't even let me do simple things.

That trach I described: 90 pound man, and the airway was practically 2 cell layers deep to the skin. Are you telling me that a 3rd year student can't make a simple 1 inch incision or take a Crile clamp and do a little spreading?? It's really ridiculous. How difficult is it to shove a laryngoscope into someone's mouth? Some of these things are just not that tough, and a confident, competent resident should be able to safely let medical students do a lot more than just cut sutures. Beyond that, it's a matter of time.

I don't know. I love being in the O.R., and teaching is really great.

I will say this, I can spot a medical student who has no interest in surgery before they even scrub into a case. I'm sure the willingness of a resident or attending changes once they know a student is motivated.

I hope I end up with superior residents like you once I get to med school. I can't imagine going through med school and not getting to get my hands at least a little dirty.

 

[Beta320]

what is a suction D&C?

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

what is a suction D&C?

An OB/GYN procedure. Short for Dilation and Curretage (also sometimes called Dilation and Evacuation). In the normal D&C, you dilate the cervix (with successively bigger dilators) then use an instrument to scrape out the endometrial lining and pull it out. Suction D&C is the same but the curretage instrument is basically a big vacuum that pulls the stuff out. It's used for lots of stuff, retained products of conception, removal of spontaneous abs, also prolonged menstrual bleeding.

(Why is this in the ENT forum?)