syncope..= faint..during surgery

After being inspired and DISCIPLINED by the old doctor of my previous placement back in June, now I am determined to learn. 3 months from now I will be graduating, therefore I start to sense the urgency to learn new things while I am still a medical student. When I start working as an intern, I will not have that time.

Therefore, I was so hardworking today that I volunteered myself to assist a total knee replacement surgery.

The surgeon cut open the knee. under the skin,fat and muscles there was the knee cap. With saw, hammer , nails and stuff , he took away a few pieces of bones from the knee and exposed the joint...the description is very lengthy so i will skip it.

The best part was, during the process of drilling, hammering and sawing the bone, bits and pieces of muscle, cartilage and bone splashed all over the place. I forgot to wear the plastic covering on my face, so...a lil bit of blood actually hit my face...

Then the nurse put on the lab goggle on me which obviously did not fit me. It kept sliding down my nose. I could not touch my face because my hands were sterile and full of blood.

I started to feel very uncomfortable and nauseous. There were 2 surgeons, slowly I saw each of them had 2 faces,then 4 faces...they began to speak like a whale 'siiieeeewww waaaiiii waiii waii~~arererere youuuuu youuuu youuuuu alllllriiiigght~~'

Then the next thing happened...I fainted..although only for 1 sec. I had to leave the operation...Thank God I did not fall on the patient ;) I cant imagine hitting my face on the cut open knee and bone.

I couldnt believe this would happen! so embarrasing! and that was not my first time passing out while assisting an operation. When I assisted an operation of the vertebrae I had a similar episode. Interestingly, both were operations of the bone. No wonder I hate orthopedics. When the first one happened my family actually had a very very good laugh about it; and this afternoon as I told them about me fainting again they laughed even louder than the first time. Inspite of my absence at home,they have never lacked any joke at dinner time because I am the joker myself..hehe.

Hmm..looks like I am not gonna be a surgeon, which is a good thing :)