Another slight wrinkle in the plans

[cjsmith]

I was informed last night in no uncertain terms that if I become a veterinarian, in fact beginning from the moment I become a veterinary student, I am not to come home and discuss "What I Did Today" with rfrench. He doesn't even want to hear a highly-edited-and-sanitized verbal description of a picture in that sports medicine book.

*big dramatic sigh*

[In the spirit of full disclosure I must admit I keep looking at some of those photos in an attempt to wear down my OH NO ICK YIKES reaction.]

Comments

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

Well, you can always discuss it on here. Sanitized or not!

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

Seconded! I've been known to discuss icky trauma during a spaghetti dinner.... mmmmMMMMmmm, Spaghetti!...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hunan chicken is also very tasty. :-)

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

Do you watch Animal Cops on Animal Planet?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I can if someone has stolen it and put it on YouTube. Recommended?

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

Everynight on Ap for about an hour they cover abuse and neglect cases, and the subsequent injuries and illnesses. A lot of people can't sit through it.
I thought it would be a good way to get over the squick.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Abuse and neglect can SERIOUSLY PISS ME OFF. If I weren't squeamish, I wonder if I would have to stop watching due to the rage. (I better think seriously about how much of that I'd deal with as a vet. Do vets take oaths not to punch out the owners?)

[hanov3r.livejournal.com]

The 1985 Year Book of Sports Medicine? I'm guessing close-up, detailed, color, enhanced pictures of Joe Theismann's leg bones sticking our through the skin.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Black and white. :)

[psi-star-psi.livejournal.com]

"And then one time, at Vet School,..."

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Kinda puts a whole new meaning on putting a flute in one's pussy.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

(reference (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163651/quotes) for those less poisoned by pop culture references)

[psi-star-psi.livejournal.com]

I am horrified that I didn't make that connection on my own. I need more sleep.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Fortunately the backup Joe was engaged. :)

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

If you'd like to practice, I have plenty of REALLY icky stories from my nursing days...

[eveningscribe.livejournal.com]

...And I've got plenty of stories from about 35 operations in 20 years!

Want some tales from the scalpel?? X-D

[eveningscribe.livejournal.com]

Oops, that offer was for CJ, of course.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hee! I like telling mine, too. I wonder if there's already a LiveJournal community for people who have tales that gross most folk out. If it exists, I wonder if it allows pictures. I have a splendiferous video of some of the insides of me, and there's the first handful of shots in my foot surgery gallery... *cackle*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

All mad cackles aside, I actually would. I need to get over this. :-/

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

Just call - I'll tell you about the hanging foot, the maggots in the knee, the use of medical leeches, the man with half a face, the woman with paper thin skin that tore every time she moved... Where would you like to start? :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I've seen pictures of medical leeches in use and have heard a couple half-a-face stories, so any of the others would be great.

I've got a long way to go, and I honestly do wonder if there's any way to speed this up. To toughen up my tummy for flying aerobatics, I used to sit upside down hanging off the couch, read and twist and bend while being driven on curvy roads, and the like. I don't know if there's a crash course for this one though.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

The niece of a friend of mine was a vet student -- she too had to be reminded not to share "icky" stories at the dinner table.

On a serious note: How would the amount of standing that vets normally do effect your feet? Or would you be wheelchair vet?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

When I was growing up, my cousin Susan (in medical school near where we lived) would occasionally drop by for dinner. The conversation was occasionally a little more interesting than we were quite prepared to handle. :-)

I could compensate pretty well once I was in practice, but the later year(s?) of schooling would hurt. There are apparently a lot of multi-hour classes where you're standing. I figure if I get that far I'll do whatever I can do: bring in my cane seat, lean on the tables a lot, purloin some local anaesthetic (kidding!) :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I seem to be getting more squickable as I get older. I used to be able to watch The Operation on The Learning Channel (human surgery show in graphic detail) and was fascinated. Open-heart surgeries, brain surgeries, hernia repairs, all fascinating. Then one day they showed a face lift. I had no idea the term was so literal. Ever since, I've had a bit less tolerance for grossness (I've never really liked the horror movie subgenre I refer to as "splatter movies", either). I've also noticed less tolerance since my first hernia repair surgery way back in 1992. I used to be able to watch a lot of my own procedures, and I still get curious to a degree, but before that surgery, as they were drawing seven vials of blood for the lab, I started getting queasy around number 4. Now I can still watch work being done on me except blood draws. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm way more squickable than you are. I can't watch a needle being waved around near me, and just feeling the sensations that make it through local anaesthetic is seriously queasymaking.

At least I know I CAN improve. I used to have a very hard time giving Duchess her subcutaneous injections. Now I could do subcutaneous injections all day.

[bklyngirl.livejournal.com]

I have to admit - I'm with Rob on this one.

For what it's worth, I have a friend who is a NYC paramedic and he claims that he used to get light-headed at the sight of blood. Now he says that when he's in the moment - at an actual emergency - it doesn't bother him because he's so focused on what he needs to do that he really doesn't even notice the "ick" factor. On the other hand, he still can't watch them take blood from his own arm :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Heck, I'm with Rob on this one. I gotta, gotta, gotta get past this! At least there are many examples indicating that it can be done.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Instead you can come home, read another chapter in a James Herriot book, and heave a great sigh that your day was ... less eventful.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Herriot had quite the career, didn't he? I ought to go re-read some of his stories.