Permission granted

[cjsmith]

I can go watch surgeries! I had generic permission from the clinic owner, and for tomorrow morning I have permission from the vet doing the work.

I am trying to see whether I will get woozy or faint. There's just dental work and some skin tag removal on the docket for tomorrow morning, so I'm probably safe this time. And if I don't fall over and cause all the staff to trip on me and injure themselves, I may get permission to do this AGAIN.

I know I need some serious desensitizing. I'd like to make this a semi-regular activity if I can. Who knows what I might be able to observe in the future? And if I don't pass out all the time, I'll one day be a much more effective veterinarian. I get the impression that during surgery it's frowned upon for the person doing the work to go off and faint in the corner.

(You thought I was going to say something about the shuttle launch, huh? That one got rescheduled anyway.)

Comments

[sharya.livejournal.com]

Not sure how long animal surgeries are and if they compare to human ones, but there's a big problem in surgery where the assisting staff get light-headed. It's from standing so long in one spot... not fainting due to sight of blood/ickiness/etc. We had that problem a lot in the military as well. The main thing to remember is to keep clenching and releasing your feet/leg muscles on a regular basis... this helps to prevent blood from pooling in your extremities and eventually feeling faint :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Good reminder! I've been in the military also, so once I'm reminded I ought to be okay.

(Like human ones, most are quite short and some can be serious marathons. I suspect there are fewer very long ones in the animal world simply because of cost.)