Morbid curiosity?

[Tallison]

Is it human nature, or just a few of us who stay up until 1am on a Tuesday wondering about ourselves?

It must be existential, in part. It's part of what led me to become an RN. I can't walk past a body without poking it. Horror movies fascinate me. I love Cold Case Files. I'm reading a book by the curator of U of Tennessee's forensic anthropology "farm."

Tell me, anyone else fucked up like this, too?

[Az]

1. 1am? Feh... you just have mild introspection

Ever heard of an Agnostic Dyslexic Insomniac? They spend their nights awake contemplating the existance of dog.

[Tallison]

3. Wow, you're profounder than me

Dead dogs might as well bark in no forrest, eh? Heh.

On edit: Not all pertinent diagnoses are in DSM-IV. I think you've touched on one.

[southlandshari]

6. What do you call someone ...

Who stays up all night thinking about farmers dressed in...

Oops. Never mind.

:hide:

[Heidi]

7. That's my favorite joke _evah_.

But no one ever "gets it" when I tell it. :cry:

[skoppa]

2. I'm absolutely fascinated with the human body and how it works.

I've been fortunate enough to observe several knee scope surgeries, a bunion surgery, a full hip replacement, a thumb joint surgery, and open heart surgery. The open heart was the most interesting of them all, we actually got to stand right next to the surgeon....AMAZING. Actually seeing these procedures is part of the reason I plan on going to med. school.

By the way, I don't think it's fucked up at all. :-)

[Tallison]

4. We had a patient

a few weeks ago come back to the cardiothoracic unit following a CABG with his/her chest still open (he/she remained on balloon pump). Apparently during surgery his/her blood pressure dropped so low they had to pump him/her so full of fluid they couldn't fit his/her sternum back around the enlarged heart and lungs and had to wait a day before he/she was diuresed enough to do so.

He/she is doing fine now, up and around, but the pathophysiology was fascinating to witness.

[skoppa]

5. Wow, thats really interesting.

I wonder if that's something that happens a lot or if the Dr. just had to do what worked.

Did you have to use his/her because you needed to keep the patients privacy? If so, that's cool that you were being that safe about it.

We were observing a non-beating heart surgery and right before we left we were fortunate enough to see them start the heart again. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen!!!

[Tallison]

8. Don't know the protocol

but I'm sure they tried every vasoconstrictor, volume expander available within safe administration parameters prior to pumping the patient full of saline.

Modern medicine remains veryexperimental, still. You never know what measures a body will tolerate or reject until you try, often out of creative desperation. Bodies are remarkably forgiving and resilient of trial and error, is what I've witnessed.

On edit: At least once every week while doing rounds the staff hears something that makes them say, "Damn, I can't believed they tried that and he survived!" Of course, we don't round on the ones who didn't make it...

[Wapsie B]

9. I think if I could stand the blood and gore

I might've liked being a Pathologist, especially a Forensic Pathologist.
Forensic Files is a cool show.

[Tallison]

10. It's amazing how you get over it

The first time I saw a large quantity of blood was while doing an ER clinical and this college kids came in after getting smacked in the face with a basketball. He had a concave facial fracture, and bled all over the place. I got woozy and nauseous on approach and beat a hasty retreat.

Something about that experience, though, conditioned me to the sight. I've never since had an issue with blood, but have had to undergo similar hazing rituals with sputum, pus, vomit, etc. It's amazing what you can become conditioned to with exposure.

If pathology is what fascinates you intellectually, try riding on a rescue squad and stciking it out the first few disturbing experiences. For most people it quickly gets better.

[Wapsie B]

11. One of my sisters is a mortician

so blood and gore is in my blood so to speak. ;-)
I think it's the exploring and the learning that gets me more than anything. I'd love to be a Forensic Accountant too and catch crooked white-collars.